1. SBF's parents seek pardon from Trump
Sam Bankman-Fried's parents are meeting with lawyers and other figures in Trump's circle, trying to seek Trump's pardon for SBF.
2. Trump Brand Accepts Crypto Payments
Now, several Trump-branded product sites already accept payments using the official Trump and Melania memecoin via Solana Pay integration. Crypto-native travel booking platform Travala also recently integrated the TRUMP token for payments.
3. SEC adjusts crypto regulatory strategy
On Thursday, memecoin generator Pump.fun was hit with another class-action lawsuit, alleging that the company and its executives collected nearly $500 million in fees while violating U.S. securities laws. View All Newsletters The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), addresses the crypto industry’s biggest question — when does a token become a security? While the lawsuit alleges that every token created using the Pump.fun platform is a security and therefore subject to U.S. securities laws, that’s far from a settled legal question. Under the new Donald Trump administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said it’s shifting its crypto regulatory strategy, creating a new crypto task force tasked with establishing a clear regulatory framework for the industry. Diego Aguilar, the lead plaintiff in Thursday’s lawsuit, claims to have lost money trading three memecoins created by Pump.fun — FWOG, FRED, and GRIFFAIN. While Pump.fun itself does not create any of the tokens at issue in the lawsuit, the complaint alleges that the company “orchestrated this scheme by providing automated tools that enabled anyone to create and sell virtually worthless digital tokens in minutes,” thereby qualifying as a “joint issuer” of all the tokens launched on its platform. Aguillar’s lawsuit names a U.K.-registered company called Baton Corporation, which it claims is the operator of Pump.fun, as well as the company’s three co-founders — COO Alon Cohen, CTO Dylan Kerler and CEO Noah Tweedale. Cohen declined to comment, telling CoinDesk he was speaking for himself and not the company. The rest of the team could not be reached at press time. The law firm that filed the lawsuit, New York-based Wolf Popper LLP, filed another class-action lawsuit against Pump.fun just two weeks ago. That lawsuit, filed Jan. 16, has a different lead plaintiff but similarly accuses Baton Corporation and its three co-founders of selling unregistered securities — PNUT tokens, a Solana-based memecoin inspired by Peanut the Squirrel that the lawsuit claims has a market cap of $1 billion. As of the time of publication, PNUT tokens are down 89% from their high of $2.25 in November last year. Wolf Popper LLP and crypto litigation-focused law firm Burwick Law are also behind a recent class-action lawsuit against the originators of the HAWK token, a memecoin associated with influencer Hailey Welch, aka Hawk Tuah.Although Pump.fun launched just a year ago, the Solana-based memecoin factory is no stranger to controversy. Last March, the U.K. financial regulator issued a warning about the platform, leading Pump.fun to ban UK users. It also came under fire for its now-disabled live streaming feature, which allowed some users to promote their tokens with violent or sexual content. Read more: Crypto Gets Shocking Video As Users Stream NSFW Content to Market Their Memecoins The lawsuit seeks damages and attorney fees. -Original
4. Tether introduces USDT to the Bitcoin network
SAN SALVADOR — Tether, the cryptocurrency company behind the largest stablecoin, announced Thursday on X that it is bringing its $140 billion USDT token to Bitcoin, the blockchain that underpins the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, and the Lightning Network, a scaling service based on Bitcoin. View all newsletters Stablecoins are a $200 billion digital asset class whose price is pegged to an external asset, primarily the U.S. dollar. They serve as a bridge between government-issued currencies and blockchain-based digital assets, and are growing in popularity for everyday uses like payments, savings and remittances, especially in emerging countries. While stablecoin use has expanded rapidly over the past few years, activity and supply have been primarily concentrated on smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Tron and Solana. Making the integration of USDT with Bitcoin possible is Taproot Assets, an infrastructure that allows assets to be issued on Bitcoin’s base layer and transferred over the Lightning Network, a scaling platform focused on fast and cheap transactions, making small payments more cost-effective. Developed by Lightning Labs and released last year, the protocol opens the way for bringing external tokens like stablecoins into the Bitcoin ecosystem. -Original
5. Grayscale applies for XRP spot ETF
NYSE Arca has published a 19b-4 filing to convert Grayscale’s XRP Trust into a spot cryptocurrency ETF. Multiple companies are vying for a wide variety of cryptocurrency ETFs, from ETFs tied to Dogecoin and President Donald Trump’s memecoin to others based on XRP, Litecoin and Solana.
6. Coinbase plans to launch Solana futures
Odaily Planet Daily News Coinbase Derivatives, a subsidiary of Coinbase, has submitted regulatory documents on Thursday, planning to launch new futures contracts for Solana (SOL) and Hedera (HBAR) on or after February 18. These contracts will be cash-settled and settled on a monthly basis. -Original text
7. Tether responds to EU regulatory delisting
Tether expressed concern about the delisting of USDT from exchanges triggered by the EU MiCA regulations. Crypto.com confirmed that it will begin delisting USDT and nine other tokens from its European platform on January 31, after Coinbase removed USDT in December 2024 on compliance grounds. Tether criticized the move as hasty and lacking a clear basis, and warned that sudden delisting could increase market instability and affect European crypto users. MiCA requires that non-compliant stablecoins be fully restricted by the end of the first quarter of 2025, but exchanges can offer limited selling options until March 31. In addition, Tether announced that it would move its headquarters to El Salvador to support the country's Bitcoin policy and decentralized financial development. -Original text
8. Cryptocurrency industry lost $73.9 million in January
According to the latest report from Immunefi, in January 2025, the crypto industry lost $73.9 million due to hacker attacks, involving 19 security incidents, a 9-fold increase from the previous month. But compared with the loss of $133 million in January 2024, it fell by 44.6%. Among them, the hack of Singapore's centralized exchange Phemex resulted in a loss of $69.1 million, and the DeFi options platform Moby Trade lost $2.5 million due to a vulnerability attack. In addition, multiple projects such as Orange Finance, UniLend Finance, and The Idols NFT also suffered attacks to varying degrees. In terms of on-chain losses, BNB Chain became the most attacked network, accounting for 50% of the total losses, Ethereum accounted for 25%, Arbitrum and Base each suffered two attacks, and Optimism suffered one attack. -Original text
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