North Dakota Takes First Steps Towards State Bitcoin Reserve

Iggy Azalea's venture into the crypto world with her meme coin, MOTHER, has been a tumultuous journey marked by drama, anxiety, and industry scrutiny. Despite facing challenges, she remains committed to increasing the token's value and reshaping the celebrity crypto landscape.

Over the weekend, popular memecoins like Shiba Inu, Turbo, and Apu adopted the Chainlink Cross-Chain Token standard, expanding their availability across 12 blockchains. Tokens like Simon’s Cat, Coq Inu, and others also joined Chainlink’s decentralized data streams, enhancing visibility and distribution.

MicroStrategy, known for its bitcoin acquisitions, purchased 5,262 BTC for $561 million, increasing its total holdings to 444,262 BTC. The average price per bitcoin was $106,622, raising the total value to $42.2 billion. The acquisitions were funded through share sales under the at-the-market program.

Community Gaming's Forkast, a prediction market for gaming, esports, and internet culture events, will launch on Ethereum sidechain gaming network Ronin. Users can stake tokens, make predictions, and earn rewards on the platform, which integrates with Ronin's Waypoint for gasless transactions.

According to Chainalysis, North Korea is responsible for 61% of crypto stolen this year, with a significant increase in the value stolen in 2024. The financial collaboration between North Korea and Russia further complicates attribution and response efforts in cyber warfare.

Donald Trump has selected Bo Hines, Stephen Miran, and Sriram Krishnan as advisors for digital assets, economic strategy, and artificial intelligence. Hines, a former congressional candidate supported by crypto PACs, will lead the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. Miran will head the Council of Economic Advisers, while Krishnan will oversee AI policy.

The Grid, a Web3 system, aims to enhance blockchain accessibility by providing structured data. Co-founder Jonathan Knegtel emphasizes the importance of its meta standard in connecting data platforms to the blockchain effectively, offering a more user-friendly interface for exploring and investing in Web3.

HyperLiquid, a prominent on-chain perpetuals exchange, faced a significant USDC outflow amid concerns of North Korean hackers potentially interacting with the platform. The hackers, known for testing rather than trading, have incurred losses while familiarizing themselves with HyperLiquid's operations.

Bo Hines, former Republican nominee, has been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as the Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. Hines will collaborate with David Sacks to promote innovation and growth in the digital assets industry.

Two California men, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, have been charged with orchestrating a series of NFT rug pulls, defrauding investors of over $22 million. The U.S. Department of Justice revealed this in an indictment, calling it the largest NFT scheme they've prosecuted.