Scenius Sync (Issue #138)
Majors Lead Rebound As Tariffs Rattle Crypto Market, Indian Gov. Rethinks Crypto, Fairshake Raises $116M for Midterms, Tether Brings USDT To Bitcoin & Lightning & AVAXAI Pushes Deepseek-Powered DeFAI
Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.
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Essential News 🗞
Bitcoin, solana lead crypto market rebound as US and Mexico pause tariff threats for one month
After experiencing historic liquidation levels over the past two days, crypto markets rebounded Monday afternoon after tariff threats between the United States and Mexico were put on pause for the next month. "I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico," U.S. President Donald Trump stated in a post on Truth Social late Monday morning. "It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States. These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country." Trump said he and Sheinbaum agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for one month, during which there will be negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and "high-level" representatives of Mexico. On Saturday, President Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, with a 10% tariff on Canadian energy and oil and an additional 10% tariff on China. President Sheinbaum announced Mexico would implement both tariff and non-tariff retaliatory measures. "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada spoke to President Trump on Monday morning but no such compromise was reached between the two," according to the New York Times.
More here: Trump pauses tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but not China
Crypto market liquidations likely reached $10B — Bybit CEO
The recent crypto market correction may have liquidated up to $10 billion worth of capital, eclipsing previous estimates, according to Bybit’s CEO.
More than $2.24 billion was liquidated from the crypto markets in 24 hours on Feb. 3, according to CoinGlass data. The multibillion-dollar crypto liquidation event occurred amid growing macroeconomic concerns over a potential global trade war days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to impose import tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico.
Indian government considering cryptocurrency policy shift: Reuters
India's government is currently mulling a shift on its regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies, which could shift the rate of adoption in the country, which has ranked highly on crypto adoption metrics in recent years. India's economic affairs secretary, Ajay Seth, told Reuters in an interview that the country was reviewing its stance on cryptocurrencies in response to shifting attitudes in other countries. "More than one or two jurisdictions have changed their stance towards cryptocurrency in terms of the usage, their acceptance, where do they see the importance of crypto assets," Seth said, indicating that the discussion may again delay the release of a discussion paper that will outline the country's official regulatory stance. The paper was originally slated to be released in September 2024 before being delayed.
Crypto-focused political action committee Fairshake is gearing up for the 2026 midterms with $116 million at the ready, according to multiple reports. Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz have committed more than $20 million and recently $10 million from Jump Crypto for congressional races next year, according to a report from Politico on Thursday. Fairshake was pivotal in a key Senate race in November in Ohio. Fairshake and super PAC Defend American Jobs spent $40 million supporting Republican crypto-friendly candidate Bernie Moreno, who later clinched a win in November against crypto-critic Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Kraken Brings Back Crypto Staking for U.S. Customers
Kraken, one of the longest-standing crypto exchanges, has reinstated blockchain staking products for many of its American customers, another sign that the previously sclerotic environment for crypto assets in the U.S. is rapidly thawing. Customers across 39 eligible states will be able to use Kraken Pro to take part in bonded staking, where tokens are locked up for certain periods of time depending on the blockchain in question, Kraken said on Thursday. Donald Trump in the White House has signaled the end of draconian measures against crypto put in place during the previous administration, particularly what was imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In February of 2023, Kraken agreed to end its staking-as-a-service platform for U.S. customers and pay $30 million to settle SEC charges that it offered unregistered securities.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Tether Brings Its $140B USDT Stablecoin to Bitcoin and Lightning Networks
Tether is launching its $140 billion USDT stablecoin on the Bitcoin and Lightning Networks, aiming to expand its role in the Bitcoin-based financial ecosystem. The integration, enabled by Lightning Labs' Taproot Assets protocol, allows USDT issuance on Bitcoin’s base layer and transactions on Lightning Network, offering faster and cheaper payments. Tether's move marks a shift for stablecoins, which have primarily thrived on smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Tron, and Solana.
TON Foundation veteran launches $100 million VC fund TVM Ventures
Steve Yun, former president and current board member of TON
Foundation, has launched TVM Ventures, a new venture capital firm with an inaugural $100 million fund. Yun and a Toncoin miner contributed to the fund's capital, Yun told The Block, declining to disclose the miner's identity or their specific contribution. TVM Ventures takes its name from the TON Virtual Machine and it focuses on funding startups within the TON ecosystem, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment finance (PayFi) verticals.
AVAXAI builds first Deepseek powered DeFAI product
AIvalanche DeFAI Agents (AVAXAI) is pioneering this intersection by launching the first-ever Deepseek-powered DeFAI product on the Avalanche blockchain, bridging the gap between the best AI models and decentralized ownership. The platform empowers anyone to create, manage, launch, and trade tokenized AI and DeFAI agents powered by Deepseek while leveraging Avalanche’s unmatched scalability, low-latency transactions, and eco-friendly infrastructure. By combining decentralized ownership with the growing AI and DeFAI agents market, AIvalanche DeFAI Agents unlocks new opportunities for innovation and value creation in the Web3 ecosystem.
Elastos Raises $20M to Build Native Bitcoin DeFi Protocol
Elastos, a project looking to turn Bitcoin into a more fruitful base for decentralized finance (DeFi), has raised $20 million towards that goal. The firm has raised $20 million from private investment company Rollman Management, with which it plans to expand its merge-mined ELA token as a Bitcoin reserve asset, Elastos told CoinDesk in an email on Thursday.
Merge mining is the process of mining two or more cryptocurrencies simultaneously. BeL2 is built to allow bitcoin holders to collateralize BTC in their wallets and access Ethereum smart contract services, such as minting stablecoins and peer-to-peer borrowing. Elastos is one of a large number of projects looking to capitalize on the roughly $2 trillion stored in bitcoin by building DeFi services that BTC's deep wells can fund.
Uniswap v4 launches on 12 chains
Uniswap has launched its v4 decentralized exchange (DEX) on 12 blockchain networks, including Ethereum and Avalanche, the Uniswap Foundation said on Jan. 31. The upgraded DEX introduces “hooks,” plugins that let developers create custom logic for cryptocurrency trading pairs, Uniswap said.
Uniswap v4 will also operate on layer-2 scaling networks, including Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and Polygon, among others, Uniswap said. It plans to expand Uniswap v4 to more chains in the coming weeks. Uniswap v4’s hooks include tools for dynamically adjusting swap fees, lending unused liquidity for added yield, automatically hedging against impermanent loss and protecting against maximum extractable value (MEV) strategies, such as sandwich attacks, according to Uniswap.