Scenius Sync (Issue #130)

All Hail All-In's David Sacks - The New Crypto Czar, Fed Chair Likens BTC To Gold, Pudgy Penguins To Release PENGU Token As Pudgies Flip BAYC, Floki's Mastercard, & MOVE Moons

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

If you find this newsletter valuable, please subscribe and share The Scenius Sync with your network 💪

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Essential News 🗞

1. Trump Names David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar

   • Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas,” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social network.

     Trump said that Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. In Sacks, Trump is tapping one of his most prominent Silicon Valley supporters and fundraisers for a prime position in his administration. Sacks played a key role in bolstering Trump’s fundraising among technology industry donors, including co-hosting an event at his San Francisco home in June, with tickets at $300,000 a head.

   • Additional coverage on Sacks’ new role here: What Trump’s New AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks Means For the Tech Industry

2. Fed Chair Powell: Bitcoin Is 'Like Gold, It's Just Virtual And Digital'

   • Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed the perception of Bitcoin at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday, asserting that the cryptocurrency is more akin to gold than the U.S. dollar. “People use Bitcoin as a speculative asset. It’s like gold—it’s just virtual and digital,” Powell said during the discussion. Powell dispelled notions that Bitcoin undermines the Federal Reserve or the strength of the U.S. dollar and highlighted that Bitcoin is not being used as a primary form of payment or as a reliable store of value due to its high volatility.

3. FDIC asked financial institutions to pause crypto-related activity according to letters obtained through Coinbase lawsuit

   • The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation asked financial institutions to pause cryptocurrency-related activity, according to heavily redacted letters obtained in a lawsuit brought by Coinbase. Coinbase, through consultant firm History Associates Inc., sued the FDIC in June and accused the agency of trying to cut off the crypto industry from the banking sector. The lawsuit also requested the FDIC's "pause letters." "... at this time the FDIC has not yet determined what, if any, regulatory filings will be necessary for a bank to engage in this type of activity," one letter from March 2022 read. "As a result, we respectfully ask that you pause all crypto asset-related activity." “Operation Chokepoint 2.0 wasn’t just some crypto conspiracy theory,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a post on X.

   • In related news, Incoming crypto czar Sacks says 'Choke Point' crackdown 'needs to be looked at'

4. Trump congratulates bitcoiners on $100,000 milestone as industry reacts to new all-time high

   • President-elect Trump’s nomination of crypto-friendly blockchain advocate Paul Atkins for SEC Chair late Wednesday was the final and decisive nudge for bitcoin to breach $100,000, Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote in a Thursday note to clients. “We believe, this appointment and the broader regulatory direction under Trump 2.0, is materially positive for the wider crypto industry and the longer tail of blockchain assets that dealt with ‘regulation by enforcement’ so far,” Chhugani said. “We remain convinced $100,000 is not the final milestone … [and] expect bitcoin to hit a cycle-high of $200,000 in late 2025.” Pro-crypto Trump congratulated bitcoiners on reaching the milestone in a post on Truth Social, taking some of the credit for bitcoin’s price rise. “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Together, we will Make America Great Again,” he wrote.

5. Pump.fun restricts access for UK users

   • The team behind the memecoin launchpad pump.fun began restricting UK users this morning. The move came days after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority tagged pump.fun as unauthorized. Most firms need the regulator’s approval to do finance-related business in the country. It’s apparently the platform’s first public restriction, despite facing past criticism for its fast-and-loose approach to moderation. Notably, pump.fun — which allows users to launch Solana-based tokens for around $2 — took down its livestreaming feature last week after a number of violent and disturbing streams went viral.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Top NFT Brand Pudgy Penguins to Release PENGU Token

   • Top NFT collection Pudgy Penguins is releasing a token called PENGU this year on Solana, the team behind it told CoinDesk. PENGU will have a total supply of 88 billion tokens, with 23.5% reserved for holders of Pudgy Penguins and related NFTs. Despite the NFT bear market, Pudgy Penguins has retained cultural relevance, which could help it navigate an era when attention has shifted from NFTs to fun tokens and memecoins.

   • X Announcement, here.

   • Relatedly, Pudgy Penguins overtakes BAYC as second-largest NFT collection by market cap

2. Cult memecoin from Milady NFT creators goes live at over $600 million FDV

   • Cult, the highly anticipated cryptocurrency from the creators of the Milady NFT project, launched Thursday and saw its fully diluted value soar above $600 million. The Ethereum-based memecoin launched at around 7 p.m. EST on Thursday, as its official X handle announced that the token generation event (TGE) is live. The token's FDV surged as soon as it launched, reaching a high of $845 million, according to data from Dexscreener. The figure has since come down to around $630 million at the time of writing, as the token price fluctuated after the initial rally.

3. Floki, Mastercard launch 13-crypto debit card in Europe

   • Floki and Mastercard have introduced a debit card that will be available in physical and virtual form in 31 European countries. The card supports eight blockchains and can be funded with FLOKI and other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Tether coins (USDT, EURT, XAUT), Circle, BNB, Solana, DOGS, Hamster Kombat, The Open Network, and Notcoin.

4. Former Binance exec and now VC launches ICO platform BuidlPad

   • Erick Zhang, a former Binance executive and now managing partner at Nomad Capital, has launched BuidlPad. BuidlPad is a new ICO platform available to KYC-compliant users in non-restricted regions.

5. Movement Network's MOVE Trades at $1.3B Market Cap Amid Airdrop

   • Movement, an Ethereum layer-2 network that was built using MoveVM, issued its native token on Monday with a portion of the tokens being airdropped to early users and community members. MOVE is currently trading at 61 cents representing a $1.3 billion market cap on the back of $441 million worth of trading volume in the first 90 minutes since going live.