Feb. 6, 2025

We're excited to announce our new format "Crypto Daybook Americas" will replace "First Mover" on Feb. 24. "Crypto Daybook Americas" is your new morning briefing on what happened in crypto markets overnight to equip you with what you'll need to know about during the coming day. It will arrive in your inbox at 7 a.m. ET to kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights and analysis. If you want a preview, "Crypto Daybook Americas" is already being published on the CoinDesk website, so hop over and take a look. You don't need to do anything to sign up, you'll start receiving "Crypto Daybook Americas" automatically when it starts coming out.

CoinDesk 20 Index: 3,264.69  -1.31%
Bitcoin (BTC): $98,501.26 +0.254%
Ether (ETH): $2,783.09 -0.46%
S&P 500: 6,061.48  +0.39%
Gold: $2,889.36  +0.12%
Nikkei 225: 39,054.5  +0.63%

Bitcoin recovered to over $98,000, erasing the late Wednesday dip to $96,800 after President Donald Trump’s son Eric encouraged the family-linked World Liberty Financial to snap up the largest cryptocurrency. “[It] feels like a great time to enter BTC, @worldlibertyfi " Eric Trump posted on X at 01:41 UTC, following which the crypto market regained poise. BTC’s dominance, or the share in the total crypto market capitalization, has risen above 60%, the highest since March 2021. “Corporates and private speculators seem to be buying BTC during downturns. It is not enough to refresh historical records, but it is causing Bitcoin's dominance to grow,” FxPro’s chief market analyst, Alex Kuptsikevich, said in an email. Traders cited U.S. data releases, particularly Thursday’s weekly jobless claims and unit labor costs and Friday’s nonfarm payrolls, as potential sources for price volatility. 

Layer 1 blockchain Berachain’s BERA token traded at $8 in pre-launch markets ahead of an impending airdrop of just under 80 million tokens to ecosystem and exchange users. The decentralized finance (DeFi)- focused network is set to go live later Thursday. The initial supply of BERA is 500 million tokens, with 48.9% allocated for community engagement, including airdrops, ecosystem development and research. Token allocations can be viewed on the Berachain airdrop checker as of Thursday morning and claimed using various EVM wallets like Metamask and OKX Wallet. The soon-to-debut blockchain uses a proof-of-liquidity consensus mechanism to reward liquidity provision and has gained a cult following and an engaged social media community, with a catchphrase questioning if the chain "was even real?"

Burwick Law, a law firm involved in a proposed a class action suit against Pump.fun, is demanding the platform remove tokens it says are impersonating it, including one called DOGSHIT2. PumpFun launched tokens that the law firm claims were designed to intimidate its clients and interfere with the litigation. "These efforts include the creation of memecoins that impersonate our plaintiffs. These acts represent the use of blockchain technologies as a tool for disrupting justice and due process," Burwick Law wrote. The firm recently proposed a class action lawsuit against Pump.fun alleging that it was engaged in widespread securities fraud.

Payments focused cryptocurrency XRP’s immediate price outlook looks grim as the perpetual futures market shows a bias for short positions amid renewed inflow of coins into spot exchanges. 

Over $15 million in XRP flowed to centralized exchanges on Thursday led by deposits to Bybit and Kraken, Coinglass data shows. Spot inflows to exchanges may mark an intention to sell tokens on the open market, dampening chances of a rally.

Meanwhile, the eight-hour funding rate in the XRP perpetual futures markets stood at -0.0065% as of Thursday morning, implying a bias for short positions, which profit from price drops. The cryptocurrency traded below several key moving averages in a bearish technical setup.

- Omkar Godbole