🤨 Bitcoin at $62K in South Korea… Wait, what?
Plus: Memecoins + livestreams = a disaster waiting to happen
GM. The Daily Squeeze is here, peeling back the crypto rind to get to the sweet and sour bits you care about.
📉 South Korean crypto market crashes as the President declares martial law.
🌞 Sun Pump launched a livestream feature.
🍋 News drops: Justin Drake’s hyped about how far Ethereum’s Beacon Chain has come, Coinbase integrates Apple Pay into its Onramp services + more
🍍 Market flavor today
The latest piece of the crypto puzzle is here 🧩 The Fear and Greed Index is steady at 76 – Greed is definitely in the air. Bitcoin has been hovering between $94K and $97K, teasing us but not quite breaking out.
Analysts are pointing out that even the die-hard HODLers are cashing in. High prices tempt sellers, and the market has absorbed around $227B in sell-side action – demand is 🔥
And speaking of demand, institutions are stepping in to keep the momentum alive. MicroStrategy bought another $1.5B worth of BTC, while BTC miner MARA Holdings is borrowing $1B to buy more Bitcoin.
On the flip side, the US government transferred nearly 20K BTC (about $1.9B) to a Coinbase Prime deposit address. Naturally, rumors are flying that they might be prepping to sell – and many believe that’d be a huge mistake (’cause did we learn nothing from Germany selling at $50K?) However, others, like Gabor Gurbacs, believe it could just be routine wallet maintenance. Time will tell, I guess.
Meanwhile, Bitfinex analysts are still bullish, expecting Bitcoin to push past $100K soon. Sure, there might be some short-term volatility with ETF outflows and long-term holders taking profits, but the overall vibe is optimistic.
Over on the ETF front, Bitcoin ETFs saw inflows of $353.6M yesterday, while Ethereum ETFs attracted $24.2M.
And there’s more good news for ETH enthusiasts: Bernstein analysts predict that ETH ETFs might soon offer staking yields, especially with the SEC expected to be more crypto-friendly under Trump. All signs point to Ethereum sentiment finally hitting bottom, and quality dApps could be ready to shine.
So, the puzzle still has missing pieces, but the ones we’ve seen so far hint at something beautiful. The next one might just be the breakthrough – are you ready to connect the dots? 🫢
📉 Drama Levels: 100, Bitcoin Levels: -30%
In today’s episode of wtf is even happening? + I’m scared: South Korea. What went down:
– South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol accused his political rivals of being North Korean spies;
– He went on live TV and declared martial law. For those of you who just said, “huh”: martial law means the military steps in to control the chaos;
– The Parliament wasn’t having it – 190 members unanimously voted to shut it down. This means Yoon now had two choices: backtrack on martial law or risk being labeled an illegitimate leader;
– Just moments ago, Yoon lifted the martial law.
As all of this was unfolding, the crypto market in South Korea was having a full-on meltdown:
– Bitcoin crashed to $62K Upbit (a local crypto exchange). While it’s since clawed its way back above $89K, it’s still not matching global prices;
– Other coins like XRP, Dogecoin, and XLM decreased by up to 20%.
Meanwhile, the big whales saw this as their chance to “buy the dip.” Huge transfers of USDT flooded into Upbit as they went bottom-fishing for discounted coins.
With everyone panic-selling and dip-buying, Upbit’s systems couldn’t keep up – apps and APIs were lagging. Thankfully, things are back to normal now.
Idk ’bout y’all, but I was sent to Earth for vibes – and instead, we’re hit with these plot twists every other day. Can the universe let us breathe for like, five minutes?
👎 Lesson not learned
The vision of crypto is breaking down barriers in the global economy, building a borderless, fair, and open system where value flows freely and securely…
…hold that thought…
…and lemme remind you that there are tokens like CumRocket.
Now imagine a platform packed with thousands of unhinged tokens like that and add a livestream feature to it. “What could possibly go wrong?” – asked no one.
The memecoin platform pump.fun gave livestreams a shot and learned the hard way that this wasn’t a good idea (read more about that here). TL;DR: the stuff people did there was the kind of thing you’d wanna hide from your mom. It got so bad they had to close the feature.
But then comes Tron founder banana guy Justin Sun. He saw the whole disaster unfold, looked in the mirror, and said to himself, “Trust your own judgment, Justin.”
And so, I present to you the new feature of the Tron-based memecoin launcher, Sun Pump: livestreams 🤠 What I’m getting from this is that they really want the comeback of that dude in a dog cage begging for people to pump his token.
Unless the Sun Pump team’s got their censorship game on lock, it’s tough to see how this doesn’t end the same way as it did for pump.fun: super dark and ultimately shut down.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Or just wait – I don’t want us to see that mess.
🍋 News drops
🎂 Ethereum’s Beacon Chain just turned four, and researcher Justin Drake is hyped about how far it’s come. With over 10,000 people keeping consensus alive, 100% uptime, $125B secured, and proof it can bounce back from 51% attacks, this thing’s crushing it.
🍎 Coinbase’s Onramp app service now supports Apple Pay for all compatible apps. With Apple’s massive iOS ecosystem in the mix, this could make entering crypto way easier for normies.
🇧🇷 Brazil’s central bank is cooking up new rules to block stablecoin transfers to self-custodial wallets. They wanna keep a closer watch on foreign currency flows and money exiting the country.
🚀 Sonic Labs achieved Genesis – the first-ever completed block – meaning the public launch of their Layer-1 blockchain, Sonic, is coming soon. Built for speed and fully EVM-compatible, it promises big perks and top-tier infrastructure for builders.
👟 RTFKT, the Nike-owned NFT sneaker brand, is shutting down in January 2025. But before saying goodbye, they’re launching one last collection: the MNLTH X Blade Drop.
🧃 Sip of knowledge
Learn about the EXMO crypto exchange with the latest BitDegree Mission, “Seamless Trading and Earning With EXMO”:
🍌 Juicy memes
