This Week in Review | Trump Launches TRUMP Meme Coin, Market Cap Skyrockets to $70 Billion; Upbit Ordered to Halt Operations
BlockBeats will compile key industry news in this article for the week of 1.13-1.19 and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and industry trends.
Important News Recap
U.S. President Trump Issues Namesake Meme Coin TRUMP, Market Cap Surges to $700 Billion in 48 Hours
On January 18, the official social media account of U.S. President Trump announced the launch of the Trump namesake meme coin, TRUMP. Subsequently, Trump's personal account and Trump's son Eric Trump tweeted to confirm the "legitimacy" of TRUMP. Within just 24 hours of its launch, TRUMP was listed on top exchanges like OKX, Coinbase, and Binance, setting a record for the shortest time to list a token spot market. Additionally, it saw almost no retracement post-launch, with its price surpassing $70 billion within 48 hours and its circulating market cap exceeding $140 billion, briefly reaching a total market cap of $700 billion. Concurrently, since the token was issued on Solana, it also led SOL to break its historical high in this cycle.
According to the official website of the "Trump Official Meme Coin" TRUMP, Trump Meme is not involved in politics and is not related to any political campaign or government office or institution. It is worth noting that Trump's affiliates, CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, collectively own 80% of TRUMP, subject to a 3-year unlocking schedule. Owners of Fight Fight Fight LLC, CIC Digital LLC, and Celebration Cards LLC will receive transaction revenue generated by TRUMP trading activities.

Korean Regulatory Agency Issues Business Suspension Order to Upbit, Existing User Trading Can Still Proceed
On January 16, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, received a business suspension notice from the financial regulatory agency due to violations of the customer identification system (KYC) and failure to fulfill anti-money laundering obligations. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission issued a pre-notification of sanctions related to the violation of the Specific Financial Transactions Act to Upbit on the 9th of this month, with the core content being a business suspension. If this sanction is ultimately confirmed, Upbit will be restricted from conducting new customer-related businesses for the duration of the business suspension period (up to 6 months), while existing user trading can still proceed.
The operator of Upbit, Dunamu, responded on the same day, stating that the final decision on the financial regulatory authority's penalty has not been made yet and that the issues raised will be clarified through subsequent processes, including the Sanctions Review Committee. At the same time, Dunamu also emphasized that even if the penalty is eventually imposed, it will not affect the cryptocurrency trading services for existing and new users. The penalty measures will only restrict new users from withdrawing virtual assets from the Upbit platform for a specific period. Related information: "South Korean Regulatory Authority Issues Business Suspension Penalty to Upbit, Existing User Trading Can Still Proceed Normally".
LTC, SOL, and XRP Among Popular Coins for US ETF Approvals This Year; Nasdaq Submits LTC ETF Application
On January 16, according to market news, Nasdaq filed the Canary Litecoin ETF 19B-4 application, initiating the regulatory review process. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart expressed on social media that "Litecoin ETF now meets all requirements, the first altcoin ETF of 2025 is about to enter the countdown. I see no reason to withdraw this application, especially since the SEC has commented on the S-1, Litecoin is seen as a commodity, and the SEC has new leadership."
He also believes that obtaining an ETF for Solana or XRP approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is only a matter of "time," not "if." However, the Litecoin ETF may be the first to be approved—mainly because the SEC has not accused Litecoin of being a security.
GoPlus, Solv Protocol, Jambo Projects Announce TGE This Week and List on Multiple Exchanges
Bitcoin staking protocol Solv Protocol announced the eligibility check page for airdrop on January 16 and opened airdrop applications on January 17; the token SOLV has a maximum supply of 9,660,000,000 SOLV (to be increased through a BTC reserve-raising plan decided by governance voting); total initial token supply: 8,400,000,000 SOLV (86.96% of the maximum token supply); airdrop ratio: 7.5%. SOLV is listed on Bitget, Binance Megadrop, and Gate platforms.
On January 15, the Web3 User Security Network GoPlus Foundation released detailed information on the GPS token airdrop and eligibility criteria. The airdrop will be distributed in four Seasons, with the first season distributing 3%. The airdrop query and claim open time is January 16 at 15:00. The total supply of the GPS token is 10 billion, with the airdrop share being 10%; subsequently, GPS will be listed on Bybit, Bitget, and Gate exchanges.
On January 7, Web3 mobile phone Jambo launched its native token J, issued on the Solana network, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Jambo has built the largest on-chain mobile ecosystem to date, having sold 650,000+ JamboPhones distributed across 128 countries and created 4.5 million wallets. It has been listed on Bybit, Bitget, OKX, and Gate exchanges.

New York Law Firm Plans to Represent Loss-Affected Investors Against Pump.fun
New York-based Burwick Law firm has revealed plans to represent investors in taking legal action against the Solana-based Meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun. The reason cited is that the platform has been engaged in suspicious sell-off activities for months. The law firm alleges, "Over the past few months, pumpdotfun has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, while displaying illegal drug use, self-harm, racism, anti-Semitism, obscenities, and other antisocial behaviors on the platform." The company is urging individuals affected by Pump.fun's actions to come forward and participate in potential legal action for compensation. Burwick Law stated that this announcement came after months of collaboration with some individual investors who are seeking remedies after losing significant amounts of money due to investments in Meme coins, Rug events, and unfulfilled promises. The community currently views this statement as merely "legal business advertising," and the final decision on whether to appeal is uncertain.
Solana AI Hackathon Results Announced, askthehive ai (BUZZ) Takes the Lead
On January 16, according to official SendAI news, the Solana AI Hackathon award winners were announced. The Hive (BUZZ) was awarded the best project of the hackathon and received a $60,000 prize. FXN and JailbreakMe were ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the overall rankings. The hackathon had over 400 projects participating, with 21 projects standing out and sharing a total of $275,000 in prizes. Related Read: "21 New AI Projects, Solana AI Hackathon's Four Major Tracks Explained"
Sonic (formerly Fantom) and Monad Founders Engage in Online Spat, Intense L1 Competition
On January 13, the two popular Layer 1 networks, Sonic (formerly Fantom) and Monad, suddenly started exchanging barbs online, with even the founders of both projects personally getting involved. As the two most anticipated Layer 1 projects in the upcoming market, there is indeed a natural competitive relationship between them. The cause of the dispute this time was when tunez, a core team member of Monad responsible for business growth, criticized the TVL of the Sonic network, pointing out that it was almost the same as the amount lost in the previous Multichain cross-chain bridge hack incident. This led to a counterattack from the Sonic community, with Sonic's (formerly Fantom) co-founder AC personally firing back: Monad has no cross-chain bridge, no technology, nothing at all... The drama was largely defused after Monad responded in a more subdued manner. Related Read: "Founders Get Involved: Why Did Sonic and Monad, These Two Popular L1 Projects, Exchange Barbs Online?"
TikTok Banned, Little Red Book Receives a Large Number of "Foreign TikTok Refugees"
Due to the earlier executive order by the Biden administration to ban TikTok, the "spiritual home" of many European and American trendsetters instantly collapsed. To resist the U.S. government's ban on TikTok, millions of creators, fashionistas, and content consumers, like a digital version of the "Exodus," surged into Little Red Book. This cultural immigration wave from Europe and America caused Little Red Book to skyrocket to the top of the App Store overnight, becoming the world's hottest free application. Of course, crypto-savvy professionals also mingled with this trend, and meme coins related to Little Red Book, such as "momo," "xiaoya," and "Captain Potato," emerged, sparking a short-lived craze. Related Read: "TikTok Refugees Pour In, Is It Time to Start Finding Memes on Little Red Book?"
Community Expresses Displeasure as Web3 Game Development and Operation Platform Xterio Project's TGE Triggers Investor Losses
On January 8, Xterio conducted its Token Generation Event (TGE), and the emotions of investors who suffered losses have been escalating. As Xterio influencers continued to expose and share loss data, community dissatisfaction quickly boiled over, with various Xterio rights protection groups mobilizing. Xterio had previously achieved a $3 billion valuation and raised $40 million in funding, followed by a $15 million injection from Binance Labs in 2023, garnering significant user participation. However, post-TGE, the airdrop fell short of expectations, and the official NFT issuance plummeted, resulting in heavy losses for investment users. Related Read: "Former Star Project Xterio Faces Heavy Criticism From the Community After TGE, Leaving Many Players Penniless"
Base Announces 2025 Strategic Goals: 25 Million Users and $100 Billion Platform Assets
On January 17, Base published a post announcing its 2025 strategic goals, aiming to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, and a platform asset scale of $100 billion. To this end, Base will focus on five key areas: supporting developers to build on-chain applications, promoting ecosystem development, optimizing user ownership management, increasing capital market liquidity, and enabling global low-cost on-chain transactions through decentralization and blockchain scalability. Related Read: "Agent Market, On-chain Ownership: A Quick Look at Base's 2025 Strategic Goals"
AI Resurgence, Rise of DeFAI Track, Significant Gains for Several Related Concept Coins
DeFAI (DeFi + AI) is rapidly emerging as a hot track in recent times. The current DeFAI can be broadly classified into three categories: AI abstraction, autonomous DeFi agents, and market analysis and prediction. Concept projects such as Griffain (GRIFFAIN), The Hive (BUZZ), Hiero (HTERM), among others, have shown significant gains. Related Read: "DeFAI Track Quadruples in Valuation in One Week, Which Tokens Are Worth Accumulating?", "Deep Integration of DeFi and AI in DeFAI, Can it Trigger a New Wave of AI Agents?"
MicroStrategy Acquires 2,530 Bitcoins for Approximately $243 Million
On January 13, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor announced on social media that MicroStrategy had acquired approximately 2,530 bitcoins at an average price of about $95,972, with a total value of around $243 million. As of January 12, 2025, MicroStrategy holds 450,000 bitcoins, with a total acquisition cost of approximately $28.2 billion and an average purchase price of around $62,691.
Top Articles of the Week
"TikTok Refugee Influx: Is It Time to Start Finding Memes on Xiaohongshu?"
The cultural migration from Europe and America has driven Xiaohongshu's rapid rise, especially after TikTok faced a ban in the U.S., leading numerous creators and fashionistas to flock to this platform. Xiaohongshu, by emulating TikTok's design and updating its algorithm, has embraced this wave of "refugees" and gradually integrated into the wave of Sino-US cultural collision. Apart from cross-border surfing, Xiaohongshu has also become a new "meme economy experimental field," attracting not only the attention of the cryptocurrency community but also allowing the outside world to gradually feel the unique charm of the Chinese internet. With the continuous growth of users, the platform is poised to give birth to viral memes similar to TikTok, and may even become a new cultural export highland.
"Los Angeles Fire Zone: Scorched Crypto Moguls and Mansions in Peril"
California has experienced one of the most severe wildfires in history, affecting several affluent communities in Los Angeles, including Pacific Palisades. Although these areas were once a gathering place for celebrities and crypto giants, natural disasters have ruthlessly reached here. Mansions of Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose and other industry leaders in the crypto space such as Whale Panda, Ankr founder Chandler Song, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, are all facing varying degrees of wildfire threats. Many have lost their homes in the fire, including some irreplaceable crypto assets.
"FTX Repayment in Progress: Which Coins Will Bear the Brunt of Massive Selling Pressure?"
FTX's debt repayment plan has gradually become clear but has caused significant selling pressure on certain coins in the market, such as FTT and OXY. These tokens have limited market circulation and may struggle to absorb FTX's large sell-offs. FTX's repayment plan includes full payment of claims followed by a 9% interest offering, with debt settlement based on cryptocurrency's original price. FTX's unique products, such as leverage tokens and tokenized stocks, were once popular among investors, but the future of these products is now uncertain, with some already being absorbed by other exchanges.
"After Nearly Four Years of Silence, Is the Ethereum Official Account Finally Getting Active?"
The Ethereum Foundation has announced a new strategy focusing on the social aspect to improve the transparency and efficiency of information dissemination. The Foundation has launched two accounts on X platform, each responsible for different types of information releases to enhance interaction with the community. Furthermore, the reform includes synchronized operations on multiple social platforms, indicating a continuous optimization of social media usage based on ecosystem needs. This move is a response to community criticism of the Foundation's inadequate marketing capabilities and lack of social media activity. While market performance and Foundation fund management have been under scrutiny, this strategy indicates the Foundation is beginning to prioritize the role of social media, striving to enhance Ethereum's global influence.
"Tether Issues 'New Stablecoin,' What Sets USDT0 Apart from USDT?"
Tether has announced the launch of the new USDT token, USDT0, aiming to enhance cross-chain liquidity through LayerZero's full-chain interchangeable token standard. This simplifies the process of cross-chain transfers of USDT, reducing high fees and cross-chain costs. USDT0 can seamlessly circulate between different blockchains, eliminating the fragmentation issue of traditional USDT and improving fund efficiency. The initial partners include Kraken's Ink blockchain platform, as well as Berachain and MegaETH, expected to further drive innovation and application of stablecoin liquidity, enhancing the overall ecosystem efficiency of cryptocurrency.
"Solana's Inflation Model Modification Proposal: Can It Further Boost SOL's Price?"
This week, Solana's market cap surpassed BNB, becoming the fifth largest cryptocurrency. Simultaneously, Solana's early investor Multicoin Capital proposed a governance change to adjust the network's inflation model by dynamically adjusting SOL's issuance rate to lower its inflation rate. The proposal sets a 50% target staking rate to ensure network security and enhance decentralization. The proposal aims to reduce excessive SOL issuance in a market-driven manner to improve network economic efficiency and reduce the burden on validators. While this change may lead to a decrease in staking rewards, its purpose is to avoid network centralization and dumping issues caused by high inflation rates. The community's views on this proposal are divided, with some seeing it as a sign of Solana's network maturity, while others are concerned it may affect network security and participant incentives.
"Agent Market, On-chain Ownership: A Quick Look at Base's 2025 Strategic Goals"
Base plans to drive global on-chain economic development through five core pillars: supporting developers, optimizing applications, enhancing ownership management, building a global market, and ensuring seamless onboarding for everyone. The goal is to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, $1 billion in asset value by 2025, and accelerate the application of blockchain technology globally. Base's mission is to build an open, innovative, and free internet created by a global community. Base aims to expedite the onboarding process, allowing more users and developers to participate, and create a thriving on-chain economy.
"Why I Chose to Farm Dogecoins on Worldchain"
Utilizing iris scan technology to verify identity, Worldchain offers a universal basic income (UBI) to global users. Users can earn WLD tokens through the app and engage in transactions and investments in mini-applications like Poop and Uno. Despite facing a complex market model and risks, if successful, this ecosystem could emerge as a new cryptocurrency giant. The meme coin ecosystem is rapidly expanding, with users earning tokens by downloading mini-apps and having investment opportunities. Despite the complexity of WLD's economic model, if successful, Worldcoin has the potential to become a significant platform, reshaping the crypto industry.
Burwick Law is representing investors who suffered losses on the Solana blockchain's Meme platform, Pump.fun, in a class-action lawsuit, alleging the platform's involvement in fraud and manipulative behavior. Victims can participate in the investigation through the law firm's website by providing information to support the case's progress. The lawsuit stems from investor accusations of losses due to memecoin investments, particularly highlighting the platform's "rug-pull" behavior. Despite charging significant fees since its inception, the platform has had a very low return rate, and its operations lack transparency. The law firm also noted that Pump.fun had previously shut down its live streaming feature due to inappropriate content, and UK regulators have banned the platform's use in the UK.
"21 New AI Projects, Solana AI Hackathon Four Major Tracks Fully Analyzed"
The results of the Solana AI Hackathon have been announced. After 15 days of intense competition, with over 400 participating projects, a total of 21 projects stood out, sharing over $275,000 in prizes. The champion project, BUZZ, is a DeFi proxy tool that enables complex transaction operations through simple chat commands. It quickly sparked discussions in the market and surpassed a $1 billion market cap. The runner-up, FXN, established a decentralized AI proxy resource-sharing network to address AI proxy isolation issues, enhancing efficiency and collaboration possibilities. The third-place project, JailbreakMe, focuses on AI security by testing AI model vulnerabilities on an open-source platform, emerging as a dark horse in the security sector. Additionally, several innovative projects achieved remarkable results in various fields, showcasing the immense potential of Solana in the integration of AI and blockchain.
"Online Rights Immediately, Did 'Sony Chain' Lock Degen Players Out?"
After the launch of the blockchain network "Sony Chain" by Sony, it immediately sparked controversy due to token bans. Two tokens themed after Sony characters — $Toro and $aibo — were banned on the first day of launch, preventing trading on DYORSwap and marking them as "restricted." The official response stated that the bans were to protect creators' intellectual property, requiring relevant tokens to be modified before restoration. Despite this explanation, this action has raised questions among Web3 players regarding the decentralized spirit, believing that such direct banning goes against the principles of decentralization.
"AI+Gaming Track Rising, Which Projects Are Worth Watching?"
The application of AI in the crypto world has rapidly expanded, with the gaming sector also becoming a hotspot. Multiple AI-driven gaming projects have emerged, such as Parallel Colony, a survival game that combines AI Agents, allowing players to interact with AI and assign tasks. Smol Worlds integrates AI for on-chain battles, Eternum uses AI-driven sentience to transform the gaming experience, AI Arena offers an AI-led arena, and Super Champs enhances game interactivity through AI commentary. These projects not only demonstrate the potential of AI in gaming but also drive innovation in game mechanics.
"Pantera's 2025 Prediction: How Dollar On-Chainization Reshapes the Global Financial Map?"
This article revolves around blockchain technology, especially stablecoins and asset tokenization, enhancing the global dominance of the US dollar. The US is advancing stablecoin legislation, expected to make progress by 2025. The tokenization of real-world assets is driving DeFi's development, gradually integrating traditional assets into blockchain, thereby strengthening the dollar's importance in the global financial system.
"GRIFT Doubles, Why DeFAI Is the Best Rebound Target After a Crash?"
DeFAI has excelled in the AI agent subsector, especially during market downturns. Orbit and HeyAnon are standout projects, each driving market development through unique features and innovation. Orbit provides cross-chain transactions and DeFi operational support, while HeyAnon focuses on data and multi-step transactions, strengthening developer community building. Despite Griffain being the largest market cap abstraction layer project, its market performance is highly volatile. Overall, despite challenges, DeFAI's vision continues to attract investors, especially in the realms of automated trading agents and abstraction layers, poised to lead growth during market rebounds.
"Comprehensive Analysis of aixbt: How Does It Perform as a CT KOL?"
As a social media agent, aixbt has garnered widespread attention in the crypto community through its rapidly growing fan base and highly consistent operational approach. It possesses not only an outstanding personality and IP potential but also has built market credibility through cautious token endorsements. aixbt's financial performance is also remarkable, notably in driving the surge of low-cap AI tokens. Technically, aixbt's response is almost entirely autonomous, utilizing a large language model (LLM) for real-time social data processing, albeit raising concerns about manipulation and transparency. Regarding its $AIXBT token, the current market value reflects recognition of its technical capabilities, but the key challenge remains how to enhance its value through tokenomics in the future.
"Whale Adds $3.8 Billion, Trading Volume Surpasses Bitcoin, How High Can XRP Rise?"
XRP broke through $3 this week, reaching its highest point since 2018 and continuing to lead the 2025 cryptocurrency market. The recent surge was driven by cryptocurrency-friendly policies and expectations of U.S. digital asset regulatory reform, as well as support from the launch of the Ripple stablecoin RLUSD and the anticipated launch of a spot XRP ETF. Analysis indicates that XRP's upward trend is mainly driven by spot investors, with large token holders, or "whales," continuing to accumulate. Additionally, XRP has surpassed Bitcoin in Google search popularity, demonstrating strong market attention, and technical analysis indicates the potential for it to break its all-time high.
"AI Agent warming up, what are the noteworthy new projects in the past week?"
Recently, due to reduced expectations of a Fed rate cut, the U.S. stock and Bitcoin markets experienced a sharp decline, impacting the AI Agent sector, with a market cap shrinking to around $11.5 billion at one point. However, Bitcoin quickly rebounded, restoring market sentiment. Emerging AI Agent projects like AIOS and SORA quickly attracted fund attention and rebounded. AIOS focuses on developing an artificial intelligence agent operating system, SORA provides a Go language-based AI dialogue framework, and AICC experienced a process of opening high and falling low, facing market controversies. These changes reflect the volatility of the AI Agent market and the focus of investor attention.
"Deconstructing AI agent, how to create a new DeFAI scenario?"
The AI Agent is gradually attracting market attention, despite challenges such as a lack of research tools and user guidance. This article explores the potential applications of AI Agents in DeFi, including automated fund management, yield optimization, and risk control, while also looking forward to the broad prospects of Agent collaboration and innovation.
"Riding the DeFi + AI trend, overview of the panoramic view of the four major DeFAI domains"
DeFAI is in the early stages of development, demonstrating its enormous potential in the blockchain ecosystem, particularly in improving user experience, automating trades, and optimizing yields. Through intelligent agents (AI Agents), the DeFi ecosystem can automate complex financial operations, enhancing trading efficiency and precision. Currently, DeFAI mainly covers areas such as abstract AI tools, yield optimization, market analysis, and infrastructure platforms, with platforms like Griffain and Anon already showing relatively mature applications. In the future, with continuous technological advancements, the combination of DeFi and AI is expected to drive the DeFi ecosystem towards a more intelligent and efficient stage through directions such as smartization, decentralization, and privacy protection.
"Virtuals Large-scale Buyback Impact How Much?"
Virtuals announced that it will use over 12 million $VIRTUAL tokens obtained through a post-staking transaction to repurchase and burn related proxy tokens, a process expected to be completed within the next 30 days. The buyback will follow a Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) model and update the post-staking tax distribution mechanism, allocating 30% to proxy creators, 20% to proxy alliances, and 50% to the proxy sub-DAO. This buyback plan aims to prevent market panic, reduce platform tax burden, and incentivize some token holders. While some community members have raised objections to this strategy, suggesting it may create selling pressure, others believe that this strategy will not lead to direct selling pressure and any indirect pressure will be limited.
"How to Use Cookies to Continue Sniffing Out Gold in the Crypto AI Market?"
This article analyzes the Cookies.fun platform to explore how to efficiently follow trends in the crypto space and AI sector. To address the inefficiency of information input and the tendency to fall behind on updates, integrating the Cookies platform can help track the popularity and market performance of proxy projects. The platform offers various tools such as proxy popularity analysis, market capitalization comparisons, etc., to identify potential projects. Using these tools can aid in more effectively filtering out projects worth attention, avoiding missing key trends due to information overload.
"Q1 Crypto Market Focus: Summary of 11 Major Projects' Developments"
In the first quarter of 2025, several crypto projects are expected to launch their mainnets or undergo TGE, including projects like Berachain, Monad, and Nillion. While some project launch dates are based on community rumors or lack official confirmation, events related to projects like Berachain and Monad have already attracted significant funding and participants. Projects such as Nillion and Abstract have clarified their launch timelines and are engaged in testnets or other interactive tasks. Moreover, major projects like OpenSea and Story are also making ongoing progress.
"Stepping Down Soon, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Responds to 11 Key Crypto Market Issues"
This week, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, in one of his final interviews before stepping down, discussed cryptocurrency, capital market reforms, and the future of the SEC. He emphasized the responsibility towards the capital markets, stating that even with leadership changes, the SEC will continue to fulfill its mission to protect investors and ensure market compliance with the law. He reflected on some reforms during his tenure, such as shortening the settlement cycle and enhancing privacy protection, believing these measures help enhance market integrity. He also touched on cryptocurrency regulation, stating that Bitcoin and Ethereum should not be considered securities, but other crypto projects need more transparency and disclosure. Additionally, he mentioned market risks including policy uncertainty, leverage use, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?|100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
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After Surging 40%, Has Ethereum Price Peaked Upon Exiting the Craze?
Whether you are an insider or an outsider, these days you must be familiar with the news about Ethereum. The reason is simple, causing Ethereum enthusiasts to sigh with emotion and almost throwing off-guard those who defend Ethereum, Ethereum, with a "3-day surge of 40%," climbed to the top of the Douyin Hot List.
As we all know, Ethereum launched the Pectra upgrade on May 7th. This most significant network upgrade since early 2024 integrates the Prague execution layer hard fork and the Electra consensus layer upgrade, significantly improving Ethereum's performance through 11 improvement proposals. The account abstraction feature (EIP-7702) allows users to flexibly manage wallets through social media accounts or multi-signature schemes, reducing the user threshold, attracting more users and developers. The staking mechanism optimization increases the validator ETH cap from 32ETH to 2048ETH and introduces a flexible withdrawal method, making it easier for institutions and individuals to participate in network security, enhancing the market's confidence in Ethereum's long-term value.
At the same time, Pectra optimized the interaction efficiency of Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism, making transactions faster and cheaper, leading to a surge in on-chain activity. As a crucial step for Ethereum's transition from "2G" to "5G," the Pectra upgrade not only enhances network vitality but also "recharges confidence" in the market, directly driving the price increase.
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It's not just Ethereum itself, as Wall Street also brought important bullish news.
The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proposed to the SEC allowing Ethereum ETFs for staking. This proposal is expected to elevate Ethereum ETFs from a mere investment tool to a bond-like "interest-bearing asset," bringing investors both capital appreciation and passive income, igniting market optimism about Ethereum's future potential.
Specifically, BlackRock has proposed to amend its S-1 filing to allow investors to create and redeem ETF shares directly with Ethereum instead of the U.S. dollar (i.e., in-kind redemption). This move, combined with its $2.9 billion BUIDL Fund launched in March 2024, aims to deepen the integration of traditional finance with blockchain. The BUIDL Fund is a tokenized fund operating on the Ethereum network, investing in traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. This setup is highly attractive to institutional investors, as they can not only benefit from Ethereum's price appreciation but also earn stable cash flow through staking.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, stated in a CNBC interview in March 2025 that the addition of staking functionality will significantly enhance the appeal of the Ethereum ETF. He admitted that when the Ethereum spot ETF was launched in July 2024 without staking functionality, the market demand was lackluster, and staking could be the key to reversing this trend.
Meanwhile, the SEC's shifting stance on cryptocurrency regulation has also fueled this upward trend. During the tenure of the previous SEC chairman, the regulatory approach was tough, and staking was strictly viewed through the Howey test as a potential unregistered security. Therefore, when approving the Ethereum spot ETF in May 2024, staking functionality was explicitly prohibited.
However, with Trump back in the White House and Paul Atkins taking over the SEC, there has been a noticeable relaxation in crypto regulation. Apart from BlackRock, ETF issuers such as Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also submitted applications for similar staking and in-kind redemption.
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If staking ETFs are approved, the benefits are likely to go beyond price appreciation. The introduction of staking functionality could redefine the role of crypto assets, making them more similar to traditional financial products that provide returns and value appreciation, thereby driving Ethereum closer to mainstream finance.
Currently, the SEC still needs to address several decisions related to crypto ETFs, including whether to approve ETFs for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin. With the calls for an "altcoin season" growing louder, Ethereum's strong performance may just be the beginning of a larger crypto market frenzy.
In addition, the Trump family-related DeFi project WLFI is also bullish on this wave of rise, with frequent on-chain activities. According to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, a WLFI-related address is currently borrowing coins to go long on ETH, borrowing 4 million U from Aave to buy 1590 ETH at an average price of $2515 per ETH.
For this epic surge of Ethereum after half a year of silence, the community has indeed gained more confidence and hope, which has also led to a revival of the entire altcoin market. However, amidst the joy, there are also voices of pessimism. Below is a summary conducted by BlockBeats based on community discussions.
The optimists point out that the current market structure is similar to the eve of the bull markets in 2016 and 2020, predicting a life-changing surge in the next 3-6 months, where some altcoins may even achieve astonishing single-day gains of up to 40%.
@liuwei16602825 stated that this surge signifies the return of the bull market as a sure thing. There is no need to worry about a pullback. The driving force behind the surge uses a high-cost isolated operation, fearing a drop more than any retail investor and will definitely do everything to support the price.
Related Reading: "Ethereum Leads the Surge Triggering the 'Altcoin Season' Speculation, How Do Traders View the Future Market?"
The bears mainly believe that this surge is different from the bull market of 2021, as the current market lacks the confidence of large-scale retail investors entering and holding positions for the long term, with funds rotating too quickly.
@market_beggar observed that a Bitfinex E/B whale has started to close positions and believes that if this whale maintains its high-speed position-closing operation for the next few days, it can be inferred that the whale no longer sees the upside potential of ETH, preparing to take profits and exit. The closing time will be a key focus going forward.
@FLS_OTC stated that there are still many uncertainties at the macro level, and the liquidity cannot support a major bull market. At this stage, it is a "last hurrah," not a complete reversal, and will continue to remain in a short position.
@off_thetarget believes that after ETH transitioned from POW to POS, it lost the "gold standard" of mining machine power cost support. The staking economic model led to a breakdown in value anchoring. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem (such as Starknet, zkSync, etc.) suffered from liquidity fragmentation, failing to establish an effective capital inflow mechanism, causing the collapse of the split disc pattern. Furthermore, the ETH community's excessive pursuit of technical narratives divorced from real-world needs resulted in a weak ecosystem growth. Therefore, he believes that ETH's intrinsic value system has crumbled, and the price is bound to plummet to the 800-1200 range, with a decisive short position at 1800.
@Airdrop_Guard, based on the core logic of the "High Probability Trading Strategy," where three sets of underlying logic different trading systems (such as volume depletion, price supply-demand, long/short position funding rate, etc.) simultaneously issue a short signal at the same point (2580), creating a high-probability trading opportunity. He emphasizes that these systems must be based on different algorithms and logics (rather than mere technical indicator overlays). The current ETH trend aligns with the short conditions in multiple independent dimensions of his trading system, hence the decision to short.
Overall, Bitcoin still maintains over 54% market dominance, and institutional funds' continued preference for it may limit the altcoin's upward potential. The market's future direction will depend on multiple factors, such as Bitcoin's price trend, global macroeconomic conditions, and whether funds can effectively rotate from Bitcoin to the altcoin sector.
Although Ethereum's recent leadership in the market has brought about optimistic sentiment, investors still need to remain rational as different sectors of altcoins are likely to show divergence in trends. Whether this round of Ethereum's rise will usher in a true altcoin frenzy may require more time and conducive conditions.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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