Plus: Is China controlling people with nano chips?

GM. Feeling squeezed by the market today? Let us serve up the juiciest stories, no pits, no pulp, all flavor.

💰 FTX begins repayments.

🍋 News drops: China's mind control, Grok 3 flexing on other AI + more

Btw, just a quick heads-up before we start - I’ll be shortly off, recharging and gathering fresh fruits (aka still thinking about crypto).

Source: @Decu0x

Don't worry tho', you won’t be left hanging! While I’m on vacation, I'll send you short & snappy updates anyway.

A little breather means coming back stronger, so expect extra sweet takes and even juicier insights soon! 😏

🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Crypto Market Cap: $3.17T -3.33% (24H)
Name		Price	24H	7D
	Bitcoin BTC	$95,554.03	-1.89%	-1.76%
	Ethereum ETH	$2,676.68	-4.23%	0.13%
	XRP XRP	$2.54	-5.27%	2.53%
	BNB BNB	$648.81	-4.79%	1.97%
	Solana SOL	$166.99	-9.12%	-16.91%

The market today feels kinda like sad, store-bought bread (NOT the bakery kind; those actually slap). It's fine. It exists. I definitely wouldn't write a poem about it.

But according to Bernstein analysts, this flavorless phase won’t last forever. They believe Bitcoin’s bull run is still on - and the reason is institutions.

Bernstein points out that Trump's crypto task force is working on the idea of a US Bitcoin reserve. If that actually happens, other countries could feel the pressure to do the same = a global FOMO race for Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

And it’s not just governments. Banks, hedge funds, and big corporations are also warming up to Bitcoin. If this keeps up, BTC could really become gold's biggest rival.

Source: @CryptMikeX

Meanwhile, ETH is finally showing signs of life - it briefly bounced back above $2.8K and outperformed most altcoins.

But the real bullish signal? The supply shock happening behind the scenes.

According to Santiment, Ethereum is leaving exchanges at an insane pace. Only 6.38% of ETH’s total supply is still on trading platforms - the lowest level since Ethereum was created.

Why does that matter? Because when fewer coins are on exchanges, it usually means people are moving them to cold wallets instead of getting ready to sell. That’s a strong indicator of confidence in Ethereum’s future.

Could this be what ETH needs to shake off its flop era? If the broader market picks up, it just might.

Source: @dubzyxbt

Solana is kinda beefing with the market rn, and it’s all because of its association with memecoins - constant rug pulls on Solana-based tokens have left investors feeling traumatized.

Short positions on SOL currently outweigh longs at a 4:1 ratio. In plain English, that means for every trader betting on SOL's price to rise, four are betting it’s going to drop. Not exactly screaming confidence.

Not everyone's bearish, tho'. According to trader Xremlin, short-term pain is likely, but Solana still has some major strengths:

• Biggest community in crypto;

• Most user-friendly blockchain;

• Smart marketing strategies;

• Some of the most talented devs;

• And a potential SOL ETF.

So while SOL might not hit new highs this cycle, it's still got strong fundamentals keeping it in the top ranks.

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Some people bet on stocks, others on sports… and then there are those printing gains on whatever these are:

	Name		24H Change
	Broccoli BROCCOLI		▲ 15.1K%
	Wall Street Pepe WEPE		▲ 141%
	Tongue Cat LUIS		▲ 96%
	bm BM		▲ 89%

Data as of 09:15 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

💰 Justice finally served

It's 2060. You're in the living room with your grandson, both of you enjoying the silence. Out of nowhere, he asks, “Hey, what was November 2022 like?”

You stare into the void for a moment. Then, with a serious look, you say, “November 2022, kid… was the month that built my character.”

That was when FTX crashed, dragged over 130 subsidiaries down with it, pushed BTC down to $16K, and triggered the longest crypto winter ever.

Fast forward to today, and there's finally some good news. FTX Digital Markets (the Bahamian arm of FTX) is paying back $1.2B to its first group of creditors - those owed less than $50K.

And this isn't just good for the creditors. Think about it: a bunch of crypto enthusiasts are about to get their hands on some fresh cash. We all know what that means - back to crypto it goes, baby! 😎 (This is me manifesting, btw.)

Plus, this might lift investor sentiment by showing that the industry is bouncing back from the FTX disaster.

At the same time, the repayments are based on 2022 prices. And that... hurts a little.

Bitcoin alone has increased over 370% since then, so while getting paid is nice - it's best not to think about how much more it could've been.

That said... a win is a win?

🍋 News drops

🤨 A mystery coder named Hu Lezhi sent $2M in ETH to WikiLeaks. Along with it came a wild claim - China’s military is using nano chips to control people. Either we’ve got a real-life sci-fi plot unfolding, or someone’s been watching too much Black Mirror…

🤖 Grok 3 just sh*tted on ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek in a blind community test. It outscored them by at least 10 points in math, science, and coding.

😐 Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, insists he didn’t promote the Libra token - he just “spread the word”... lol what? “Your honor, I didn’t start the fight - I just created a live-action demonstration of gravity."

👋 Ben Chow, co-founder of Meteora, resigned after getting hit with insider trading allegations. His departure follows months of poor decision-making as project lead.

💊 The founder of Pump.fun said he was disgusted by the LIBRA memecoin drama. He added that he now wants stricter rules for token launches.

🧃 Sip of gains

Discover MEXC's new event with the latest BitDegree Mission, "MEXC Futures Competition: Trade & Earn Daily":

Source: @BitDegree

🍌 Juicy memes

Source: @Decu0x

Source: @boldleonidas

Source: @naiivememe