TL;DR

• Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive orders on the first day of presidency, covering immigration, energy, AI and “DOGE”.
• As core CPI growth slowed down and non-housing service inflation declined, US inflation eases and leaves room for rate cuts.
• This year’s red envelope market will start on Lunar New Year’s Eve, January 28th, with an average increase of 9.4%.
• Bluefin is currently experiencing rapid growth with its innovative liquidity solutions and is expected to become the leader in the DEX sector of SUI.
• BTC shows strength as Trump-related tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA draw attention away from altcoins. SOL reaches an all-time high, while JUP, RAY, and Meteora continue generating significant fees.

Macro Overview

Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive orders on the first day of presidency, covering immigration, energy, AI and “DOGE”.

Trump has promised to sign a blitz of executive orders on his first day as president, moving with “historic speed and strength”. He also promised to repeal multiple executive orders from the Biden administration, which could lead to halting offshore wind power leases, ending EV mandates, and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. It is predicted that Trump could sign more than 200 executive orders on his first day of moving back to the White House, and the major subjects will be around immigration, broader control, energy, government spending, AI, TikTok, DEI programs, etc.

However, executive orders on tariffs are not mentioned in either Trump’s “Victory Rally” on Sunday night or other leaked information sources. Given that such executive orders could have a subtle influence on the domestic economy as well as the geopolitical environment, it is likely that executive orders on tariffs may not be released on Trump’s first day in the Oval Office. Trump’s administration could be unstable and unpredictable though, and it’s worth remaining cautious.

In December, the US core CPI month-on-month growth slowed from 0.3% in the previous month to 0.2%, while the year-on-year increase eased from 3.3% to 3.2%, both below market expectations. Inflation in the Fed’s most closely watched category — non-housing services inflation (supercore) — declined, while core goods and housing inflation remained moderate with no signs of reacceleration. Despite strong non-farm payroll data last Friday, the continued slowdown in inflation indicates that the economy is not overheating. The market may be overestimating the upside risks to U.S. inflation.

The dollar index hiked and broke through the $110 line last Monday, and experienced recovery following the weaker-than-expected CPI & PPI data. As the inauguration is coming close, the dollar index rose back again last Friday and reached $109.405.

Only minor movements in the total assets are observed last week, as it dropped for less than $20mn to $6.834tn last week. The pace is gradually slowing down. Last week, analysts from Barclays also predicted that QT might officially end in Sept 2025.

Another week of robust gold price, as gold price recovered from the shock of payroll data and fueled by the weaker-than-expected CPI & PPI to break the $2,700 line again. Uncertainties from Trump’s movements after inauguration also pushed the gold price higher.

Crypto Markets Overview

1. Main Assets

This Monday, the price of BTC was approximately $100,000 and ETH was around $3,300, with a week-on-week increase of 9% and 3%, respectively. Solana’s price peaked at over $280 and is currently reported at $246, up 35% week-on-week. The main notable event for Solana’s rise is the issuance of Trump tokens, which seems to have caused the market to lose confidence in ETH again, leading many holders to start selling ETH in exchange for SOL.

Last week’s BTC maintained strong resilience; however, altcoins were heavily drained over the weekend. It is still a stage worth searching for good targets.

2. Total Market Cap

As of this Monday, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market stands at $3.48 trillion. Excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, the market cap amounts to $1.05 tillion, reflecting increases of 9.4% and 11.3%, respectively.

3. Net Inflows

Last week, the total market value of stablecoins reached $210 billion, setting a new high for this bull market, with an increase of $4 billion compared to the previous week. The issuance was mainly concentrated in USDC, amounting to $2.6 billion. BTC spot ETFs saw an inflow of $1.9 billion last week, and ETH ETFs purchased over 60,000 ETH.

4. Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Last week, the Trump token, which emerged suddenly, reached an FDV of $100 billion in just 24 hours. However, according to on-chain GMGN data, few people actually made money and it is important to remain calm.

As for SOL, due to the issuance of Trump tokens mainly on Solana and Solana’s marketing as a U.S.-based chain, the market has high expectations for subsequent ecological development driven by Solana’s political attributes. On the other hand, ETH is facing significant public opinion pressure and the Ethereum Foundation has also begun its path of self-reform.

5. Seeking Alpha

“red envelope market”: The “red envelope market” is one of the must-see events during the Chinese Lunar New Year each year. It refers to the crypto trend from New Year’s Eve to the seventh day of the new year. The average return rate of the red envelope market over the past five years is 9.4%. In 2025, New Year’s Eve falls on January 28th.

Bluefin: Bluefin is a DEX based on Sui that integrates Spot Swaps and Perpetuals. Its spot swap daily trading volume is currently about 60% of the leading Cetus, and both TVL and Trading Volume are continuously growing. Due to its relatively innovative liquidity solution, the Perps trading volume is around $170 million per day, almost dominating the market, with a considerable probability of eventually surpassing Cetus.

The Key Crypto Highlights

1. TRUMP and MELANIA launch abruptly and reach $70b and $11b FDV

The Trump cabinet abruptly launched “meme tokens” of TRUMP, and the token promptly shot up to an FDV of $70b in two days, while 80% remains locked for the team. According to certain news accounts, the Trump team had extracted over $500m by selling through a single-sided LP within 1 day of launch. Just another day later, they then launched MELANIA, which quickly surged to over $11b and caused a selloff on TRUMP.

2. SOL breaches ATH, Moonshot activity reaches all-time highs

Solana stood to be the biggest beneficiary of the president launching a token on its chain, as it surged over 40% in the two days within its creation. Amidst a selloff on most coins across the market due to a liquidity suck, Solana saw buy pressure from onboarded liquidity for TRUMP and SOLETH reached a new ATH. Moonshot reached Top 5 on the App Store in multiple nations and saw historical trading volume.

3. JUP, RAY, HLP, Meteora collect unprecedented fees on swaps, USDT briefly depegs

JUP and RAY surged as much as 50% in the two days since TRUMP launched, with the TRUMP trading pools experiencing sufficient volume for pools with the token to bear over 1% yield per day for LP providers. HLP also generated large revenue as >$3b of volume occurred on TRUMP perps and saw the largest single-day liquidations on the coin. On Solana, the chain experienced downtime during the MELANIA launch and priority fees reached as high as $200. USDT briefly depegged to $0.7 against USDC, while SOL depegged by as much as 10% against USDC.

Key Venture Deals

1. Phantom completes $150m Series C led by Paradigm and Sequoia Capital

Phantom, the most popular multichain wallet on Solana, has announced the conclusion of a $150 million Series C funding round with participation from a16z, Variant and the 2 leads mentioned above. With 15 million monthly active users and >$20b in annual swap volume, Phantom boasts greater trading volume than MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet combined.

2. Moonpay acquires blockchain payment processor Helio for $175m

Privately-held Moonpay, a fiat-to-crypto onramp utilised by a multitude of wallets and both CeFi and DeFi protocols, has acquired Helio in a $175m deal. Helio, having widespread adoption in digital goods and services, has transaction volume exceeding $1.5 billion in its history with integration with Discord and Shopify. The acquisition will allow Moonpay to provide a smoother, more comprehensive onramp and payment system.

3. Komainu raises $75m in Series B from Blockstream Capital Partners

In a strategic partnership, Komainu, a digital asset service provider and custodian, has received $75m in funding to develop its services and also utilise Blockstream’s Liquid Network for more efficient settlement times. The funding is funded in Bitcoin and will allow Komainu to create a Bitcoin reserve.

The number of deals closed in the previous week was 27, with Infra leading the way with 14 deals, representing 52% of the total number of deals. Meanwhile, Data had 5 deals, DeFi had 4, GameFi had 3 and Social had the least with 1.

The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $370.24 million, with the most coming from Infra with $356.46m. Some DeFi deals did not disclose their raises, and thus the sector constituted the least funding with $2.5m.

Total weekly fundraising rose to $370.24 million for the second week of the new year, an increase of 108% compared to the week prior. Weekly fundraising in the previous week was down 27% year over year for the same period.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.io, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.

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