Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) is currently testing a tokenized gold product using Ethereum (ETH) and its Layer-2 scaling solution, ZKsync (ZK).

Enhancing Functionality

The developers behind ZKsync revealed that UBS is experimenting with its tokenized gold investment products on the blockchain to enhance functionality for global use. The product, called UBS Key4 Gold, which enables users to buy and sell fractional units of gold on-chain, is being tested on the Layer-2 network, as confirmed by the devs.

In a Proof of Concept (PoC) for UBS Gold, the largest financial institution in Switzerland started exploring ZKsync Validium. The objective is to tackle scalability, privacy, and interoperability for worldwide adoption.

A Broad Strategy

UBS Key4 Gold offers fractional gold investments for retail customers, featuring real-time pricing, high liquidity, secure physical storage, and the option for delivery. UBS Key4 Gold is built on the UBS Gold Network, a permissioned blockchain that links vaults, liquidity providers, and distributors.

ZKsync highlighted that the deployment of smart contracts on the UBS testnet, Validium, was successful. Co-founder Alex Gluchowski said the PoC reflects an ongoing exploration of how blockchain technology can enhance UBS and its financial services while contributing to its broader digital asset strategy.

A trader missed out on tens of millions in potential profit after selling Official Trump (TRUMP) at a significant discount on Saturday, failing to act when the meme coin was at its peak.

Sold Too Soon

The investor initially purchased TRUMP, the official cryptocurrency associated with President Donald Trump, for around $1.03, according to Lookonchain, and later sold all 637,000 TRUMP coins for $12.24 million, securing a profit of $11.4 million.

However, had the trader sold at the peak price of $75.35, their profit could have exceeded $45 million, meaning they missed out on over $33 million in gains. This missed opportunity underscores the volatility and unpredictability of meme coins, particularly those tied to popular figures.

TRUMP Plummets

Launched just before Donald Trump was officially inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, TRUMP briefly reached a fully diluted market valuation of about $75 billion, though it has since plummeted by more than 76%.

While the meme coin offers some utility, such as being used to buy Trump-branded merchandise, its price movements have largely been driven by broader market trends. The same could be said about MELANIA, a meme coin launched by First Lady Melania Trump.

Midnight Society has announced its closure following the controversial ousting of Dr. Disrespect for alleged misconduct. Meanwhile, meme coins based on the highly-anticipated GTA 6 continue to flood Solana (SOL).

Alleged Misconduct

Midnight Society was forced to fire Dr. Disrespect following allegations of misconduct involving a minor. The studio had a team of 55 developers, all of whom worked on the game Deadrop, but the company officially confirmed its closure on X (formerly Twitter).

Dr. Disrespect was one of the most popular streamers worldwide, but he was dismissed after the incident with the aforementioned minor. He also publicly criticized Midnight Society and their handling of the situation, claiming that the allegations were not properly investigated and that there was foul play.

GTA 6 Launches This Year

GTA 6 is shaping up to be one of if not the biggest launch in video game history, with many companies actively delaying their own game launches because of it. Capitalizing on the insane hype, meme coins like GTA 6 Coin briefly surpassed a $1 million market cap. However, it soon crashed by over 90%.

Currently, rumors about in-game crypto rewards for GTA 6 have also been circulating, though unconfirmed. There were also whispers of a possible in-game cryptocurrency being introduced, known internally as RSTAR, named after Rockstar, the company making the game.

A Bloomberg analyst recently suggested that a Litecoin (LTC) ETF is more likely to gain regulatory approval before a Ripple (XRP) ETF.

The ETF Race Is On

Last month, Ripple President Monica Long stated that XRP would likely be the next crypto ETF to be approved after Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). However, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart is not as confident, stating that the SEC still views XRP as a security and that Ripple is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the agency.

Grayscale filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday to convert its $16.1 million XRP trust into an ETF. Several other companies are also seeking approval for new crypto ETFs, including those for Litecoin, Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE), as the U.S. enters a more crypto-friendly era under the Trump administration.

The Long Game

According to James, there is still plenty of work to be done on the ETF front for Ripple in particular, which does not necessarily apply to Litecoin. The SEC has never classified Litecoin as a security, so there is every chance a LTC ETF gets approved first, Seyffart explained.

While James does not expect XRP ETFs to be approved right away, he does believe it is eventually possible for the third-largest cryptocurrency to secure one sometime later on this year.

Swarm Network-ai raised $3M in Seed Funding with assistance by y2z Ventures and ZeroStage. At the core of Swarm Network is the Multi-Agent Collaboration Framework, an interconnected system of AI agents and human collaborators working toward shared goals.

Radius secured $7M in Seed Funding with support by Pantera Capital. Radius believes in the power of secure, sustainable MEV capture that benefits both rollups and users.

MinionLab obtained $2M in Pre-Seed Funding. MinionLab is a decentralized network of autonomous AI agents, called Minions, that turn your idle devices into intelligent data-miners.

Ranger Labs acquired $1.9M in Seed Funding with support by RockawayX. Ranger Labs is focused on solving fragmentation across crypto, offering deep aggregated liquidity, smart order routing, and comprehensive data insights all seamlessly accessible with a single tap.

Analog secured $5M in Seed Funding. Analog is a completely decentralized, PoT-based, Layer-0 platform for communicating validated event data.

Humanity Protocol raised $20M in Seed Funding with support by Jump Crypto and Pantera Capital. Humanity Protocol restores trust by linking palm scans to on-chain digital identities, ensuring only real humans can participate in online spaces.

Maalexi obtained $3M in Debt Financing. Maalexi is a groundbreaking AI-powered risk management platform enabling direct participation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in cross-border trade of food and agricultural produce by ensuring payment and performance.

Pell Network | BTC Restaking secured $3.5M in Seed Funding. Pell is the first decentralized Bitcoin Restaking Network which enables users to scale their BTC yield with secure restaking options.

Pixion Games raised $12.4M in Venture Funding with support by Delphi Ventures. Pixion is on a mission to build a new category of competitive games that everyone can enjoy in short snackable sessions.

Cryptio acquired $15M in Series A Funding with help by Alven. Cryptio offers enterprise-grade accounting, audit and tax software for digital assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) had a strong start to Friday, briefly reaching over $106,000, but fell by more than $4,000 as bears regained control. Most altcoins are slow, with SOL, ADA, XRP, and SUI in the red, while PEPE and DOT saw steady gains.

BTC Drops Below $100K
Bitcoin struggled this week after a market correction triggered by the launch of DeepSeek. It fell over $7,000 on Monday, dipping below $98,000. After a failed recovery attempt, BTC bounced back to the six-figure range on Tuesday.

However, following the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, which revealed no change in interest rates, BTC dropped again, briefly falling to $101,500. It surged to $106,500 on Thursday, but by Friday evening, it had dropped back to $101,300 and remained under $102,000. Its market cap is also now below $2.020 trillion, with dominance at 55.6%.

Altcoins Decline
Solana (SOL), previously boosted by the TRUMP token hype, is down 8% over the week, now under $220. Other major altcoins like XRP, ADA, BNB, DOGE, TRX, and AVAX have also seen declines, while ETH, LINK, and TON saw small gains.

Among the sea of red, PEPE and DOT jumped by 3-4%, respectively. Other altcoins which witnessed slight gains were OM, LEO, XMR, FTN, SUSDS, KCS, and JUP. The total crypto market cap is down $80 billion to $3.630 trillion.

Other Markets

New tariff threats by President Donald Trump are causing political turmoil at the Canada-U.S. border, with Canada and Mexico pushing back and China vowing retaliation. Meanwhile, despite a rocky week, the Magnificent Seven stocks remain strong, and U.S. hiring is expected to stay solid, though data revisions are a key focus.

The tariffs are also targeting loopholes used by Chinese online retailers, while the U.S. aluminum industry urges an exemption for Canada. As Japan and the U.S. face currency pressure, Mexico struggles with rising inflation due to food and energy costs. Traffic is also expected to surge soon, which could push U.S. gas prices higher.

Elsewhere, fund managers are eyeing Italian tax incentives, and UniCredit has purchased a small stake in Generali.

Bitcoin (BTC) historian Pete Rizzo recently shared a look at the first ever Bitcoin website that was launched on January 31st, 2009.

The screenshot showed a simple design with details about the first open-source client associated with the flagship crypto, Bitcoin v0.1, which was officially released on January 9th, 2009.

The History Of Bitcoin

Bitcoin.org was registered on August 18th, 2008, and the whitepaper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto was released on October 31st, 2008. The genesis block was mined on January 3rd, 2009, with a 50 Bitcoin reward. Nakamoto ended his involvement by 2010.

Initially owned by Nakamoto and Martti Malmi, Bitcoin.org distributed early software versions. In 2013, the site was revamped, and ownership was transferred to prevent any single entity when it came to controlling the project. Today, Bitcoin.org remains a decentralized, open-source project.

Making Millions

16 years ago, Bitcoin was worth $0. Since then however, it recorded milestone after milestone as it reached an all-time high price of over $108K not too long ago. Presently, Bitcoin is priced around $100K.

Moreover, a flood of altcoins have entered the crypto market since 2009, with both mainstays like Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Binance Coin (BNB), and Solana (SOL) and meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE), SafeMoon (SFM), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Official Trump (TRUMP) turning early investors into millionaires.

Dogwifhat (WIF) has addressed ongoing concerns surrounding the Sphere Wif Hat project, a crowdfunding initiative launched almost a year ago with the goal of displaying the logo of the token on the Las Vegas Sphere.

Although the fundraiser raised $700,000 within days of its launch on March 10th, the project has yet to come to life. Refunds have also been promised if plans fall through.

Ongoing Discussions
On January 31th, Dogwifcoin shared an update via an X post, stating that the Wif Sphere organizers have been in continuous discussions with several parties to finalize the ad placement on the Sphere. The tweet emphasized that because the Wif team is not a corporate entity, they are collaborating with a well-established brand to bring the advertisement to fruition.

Dogwifcoin also mentioned that an official timeline has now been agreed upon with affiliated parties. In the event that the project fails to meet its goals, the contract will be voided, and all contributors will receive refunds. There has been no intention to mislead any parties, the post clarified.

90% Confident

WIF reached a new all-time high of $4.85 just three weeks after the crowdfunding launch. However, the token has since seen a significant decline of nearly 77%, according to CoinMarketCap.

In July 2024, Mihir, one of the five organizers listed on the official Sphere Wif Hat website, said he was 90% confident that the campaign to display the mascot on the Las Vegas Sphere for an entire week would proceed.

It is worth noting that the Sphere created new crypto-specific terms after hearing about the campaign, noting that internal discussions had been taking place to develop crypto-related policies in response to the project.

Tyler Winklevoss has issued a warning to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), stating that Gemini would not hire anyone studying at the prestigious university as long as Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), remained on its faculty.

No Chance

As long as MIT has any connection to Gary Gensler, Gemini will not recruit any graduates through this institution, Winklevoss posted on social media, before adding that he would not even consider MIT students for their summer internship program.

Earlier this month, Gensler resigned as SEC Chair on the day of the presidential inauguration, which was met with celebration by many in the crypto community. Several critics had branded Gensler as the top crypto antagonist, although he did approve several ETFs last year. 

Back To School

Under Gensler, the crypto industry faced fines exceeding $6 billion, and enforcement actions increased fourfold, according to Cornerstone Research. Moreover, the number of enforcement actions taken by Gensler against the crypto sector surged by 80% compared to his predecessor.

Gensler is currently teaching courses on AI and fintech at MIT. Before heading the SEC, he taught at the university and worked as a senior advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative.

A group of YouTubers known as the Nelk Boys is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to deliver on their promises related to a NFT project that raised $23 million.

The lawsuit, filed on January 29th by Trenton Smith in a California federal court, targets Kyle Forgeard, John Shahidi, and their associated entertainment companies. It accuses the group of being snake-oil salesmen masquerading as entrepreneurs.

Fake Perks

According to the complaint, the Nelk Boys offered a few perks for owning an NFT called Metacard but ultimately did not fulfill their promises of business ventures or investment opportunities. The purported perks included discounts on their branded merchandise, access to an event with rapper Snoop Dogg, and a $250,000 giveaway for NFT holders.

However, the suit claims that Metacard holders have seen none of the promised returns on their $23 million investment. The lawsuit suggests that the Nelk Boys sold an NFT project that failed to live up to the extravagant expectations set for buyers.

Bad To Worse

The NFT was marketed under the crypto company Metacard, which is also named as a defendant in the case. According to the suit, 10,000 Metacards were minted in January 2022, with the project selling out in minutes. Each NFT sold for $2,300, but the suit claims these Metacards had no inherent value beyond the promised perks.

The lawsuit further alleges that the Nelk Boys promised holders exclusive content, meet-ups, merchandise discounts, and the opportunity to participate in Nelk Boys projects. Smith is seeking damages, restitution, the return of funds generated via NFT sales, and attorney fees.

At the time of writing, the Nelk Boys had not responded to requests for comment, and there was no information available regarding their legal representation.

Kraken has officially brought back its on-chain staking services for U.S. customers across 37 states and 2 territories.

A Step In The Right Direction

The new feature allows users to stake 17 different assets, including ETH, SOL, DOT, and ADA. The service had been paused earlier in 2023 due to a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The return of staking services is viewed as a positive step for the U.S. crypto sector, reflecting a change in the regulatory landscape under the current administration led by none other than President Donald Trump.

Bonded Staking

The decision by the crypto exchange gives U.S. customers the opportunity to engage in bonded staking, thereby supporting the security of various blockchain networks. Furthermore, the integration of restaking will be accessible in eligible states, with assets covered by third-party slashing insurance for U.S. clients.

Pump.fun is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by Diego Aguilar on January 30th in a New York federal court. The suit alleges that every token created on the platform is an unregistered security, generating nearly $500 million in fees.

Fraudulent Marketing

The complaint claims that Pump.fun, operated by the Baton Corporation, used aggressive marketing tactics to create artificial demand for volatile tokens, leading to significant losses for retail investors. It accuses the platform of engaging in Ponzi and pump-and-dump schemes and names Baton Corporation officers Alon Cohen, Dylan Kerler, and Noah Bernhard Hugo Tweedale in the lawsuit.

Aguilar, who bought several meme coins on the platform, is suing on behalf of all investors in these unregistered security memecoins. The lawsuit seeks rescission of token purchases, damages for affected investors, and litigation costs, claiming violations of the Securities Act.

More Problems

Thus far, Pump.fun and Baton Corporation have not commented, and details on any kind of legal representation are presently unavailable. Earlier in January, law firm Burwick Law also announced legal action against Pump.fun, accusing it of causing investor losses through rug pulls and unfulfilled promises.

The firm also criticized the platform for hosting harmful content, such as illicit drug use and racism. Still, Pump.fun recently saw a surge in usage, reaching a record $3.3 billion in weekly trading volume after launching Trump family-themed meme coins.