Why Stellar and Hedera are this week's MVPs

GM. Get your daily dose of crypto citrus! We're slicing up the market chaos into bite-sized bursts of blockchain goodness.

🚀 Stellar and Hedera are pumping. Why?

🍊 News drops: kid rug pulls live on stream, the laptop that was used to track down the Bitfinex hacker is headed to a museum + more

🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Crypto Market Cap: $3.17T 1.02% (24H)
Name		Price	24H	7D
	Bitcoin BTC	$93,835.33	1.54%	6.87%
	Ethereum ETH	$3,096.09	-1.01%	-2.31%
	Solana SOL	$236.44	-2.93%	14.35%
	BNB BNB	$612.05	-1.36%	0.31%

Go get your shades right now - the market's so bright it's gonna start to hurt 😎 The Fear and Greed Index might've cooled slightly to 83, but we're still in 'Extreme Greed'. Bitcoin set a shiny new all-time high above $94K yesterday; after a brief sprinkle of correction, it's now chilling above $93K.

So, what's causing the heatwave? 🔥 The US launched options contracts for spot BTC ETFs, and it's a BIG deal.

Basically, options let investors buy Bitcoin at a specific price on a future date. They pay a small fee upfront to keep that option open, but here's the cool part - they don't have to buy if they change their mind. The only thing they lose is the fee. And TradFi investors love this setup, as it helps them hedge their risks.

And man, did they dive in. Day one of these options saw nearly $2 BILLION in total exposure traded, which Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas called wild for a debut.

But it gets even sunnier ☀️ Last week, Bitcoin's ultimate hype-man Michael Saylor delivered a keynote at Cantor Fitzgerald, sharing his vision for Bitcoin by 2045. His forecast? Bitcoin's market cap could hit $280T (it's $1.8T now). If that happens, 1 BTC could be worth $13.33M. 

Overall, keep watching the skies and stay hydrated - you'll wanna be ready for what's next on the horizon 🌤️

✍️ Noise complaint

It's a windy Wednesday night, you're all tucked in, ready to drift off into that sweet, well-earned rest. As you're about to fall asleep, you hear something outside. Umm… excuse me, wtf? Is someone stalking me, or have I finally lost it?

You grab your bedside lamp - not the best weapon of choice, but it'll do, given the circumstances. Slowly creeping toward the window, heart pounding, you peek out... and see... nothing. But why is the noise is still there? Louder now, too.

You crack the window open, and it's crystal clear. A chorus of voices shouting from the distance:

"We're SO back!..  LFG!.. Wen Lambo?.. To the moon!.."

Hol' up… is that… THE CRYPTO ROCKET? Hell yeah, partner! 🤠 And lemme tell ya, it's not just going up - it's blasting through the stratosphere like there's no tomorrow.

Just a few days ago, we talked about the moon missions of Cardano, Dogecoin, and XRP (check it out here). Today? We're taking a look at some more contenders - crypto that doubled their value over the week.

1/ Stellar

XLM shot up nearly 97% and landed at $0.25 as of writing. What happened?

Exciting partnerships:

This basically screams, "We trust you, Stellar," giving major cred to the blockchain.

Cosmic connections:

While there are no official connections between the Stellar blockchain and SpaceX, the mere fact that it's a possibility makes the rockets go rocketing.

2/ Hedera

HBAR skyrocketed by over 104% this week to hit $0.12. Why tho'?

The tea: Canary Capital dropped an S-1 registration with the SEC for an HBAR ETF.

ETFs create a way to invest in HBAR without needing to actually touch the crypto itself - and TradFi investors are into it. Besides, an ETF for Hedera could mean more liquidity and legitimacy.

And with Donald Pump entering the White House, crypto peeps are expecting a regulatory environment that doesn't feel like walking barefoot on Legos. So hopes are high that this ETF has a real shot at approval.

Needless to say, leave that bedside lamp alone next time - your portfolio is the real weapon here. Although maybe keep that window open, 'cause you don't wanna miss the next launch 🚀

📰 News drops

👦 Some kid launched a memecoin called QUANT and dumped all his holdings live on stream, profiting $30K. Started from Fortnite, now we're committing financial fraud! The crypto community wasn't having it, tho' - they started pumping the token after he sold, so if he'd held on, his bag would've been worth millions.

Source: @pumpdotfun

💻 The MacBook Pro that helped the IRS track down the Bitfinex hacker has landed in the Smithsonian. Now part of the "The Value of Money" exhibit at the National Museum of American History, this laptop isn't just any random tech - it's a piece of history.

🚀 Donald Trump has selected Howard Lutnick to be the next Secretary of Commerce. He's a vocal supporter of Bitcoin and its ideals, plus has connections to Tether.

🏀 Shaquille O'Neal is wrapping up his court drama over Astral NFTs with an $11M settlement. The lawsuit called Shaq out for hyping the project to investors who ended up losing big.

🚩 Logan Paul is under fire for promoting crypto projects without disclosing his financial connections to 'em. The drama centers around his involvement with tokens like Dink Doink, Elongate, and the infamous NFT flop, CryptoZoo.

⛔️ Coinbase is suspending Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) trading starting December 19. They haven't spilled the tea on why, just saying WBTC isn't meeting their listing standards.

☁️Sky's USDS just made its grand entrance on Solana. Previously known as DAI, USDS is now the first major DeFi-native stablecoin on Solana.

🍌 Juicy memes

Source: @AltcoinGordon

Source: @LilMoonLambo

Source: @naiivememe