The election of Donald Trump promises a new era for digital assets characterized by greater regulatory certainty and a surge in market activity. The question now is whether this shift is sustainable, or a temporary reaction to the political climate.

According to CCData’s latest Exchange Review report, aggregated spot and derivatives volumes, the most common measure evaluated for market participation, recorded a new yearly high in 2024, greatly exceeding the previous record set in 2021 ($75 trillion vs $64 trillion). With the election driving market activity and speculation, November and December were both record-breaking months for volumes, with $10.51 trillion and $11.31 trillion in monthly volumes, respectively. For context, the 2024 average (the biggest year on record) was roughly $6.4 trillion.

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Concurrently, stablecoins reached a total market cap of $210.1 billion, its highest ever point, on inauguration day, according to DeFiLlama. This reflects a YTD increase of 3.3% thus far, on the back of improved liquidity conditions across both centralized and decentralized exchanges, supporting the influx of fresh volumes seen in the last few months.

Assets “made in the USA” have been doing particularly well. These have been an outlier since the election, where a permissive regulatory environment, and the promise of more favourable conditions for US-based assets, have generated significant investor interest and speculation. Coins such as XRP, SOL, XLM and ALGO, which have a strong U.S.- affiliation, have seen outsized returns. Per CCData, the basket associated with these coins is up over 360%, outpacing the market by a sizeable margin. This marks an about-turn from the previous administration’s regulatory clampdown, which kept these under scrutiny for many years as they were ultimately deemed securities by the SEC.

Whether this unprecedented growth continues will depend heavily on the new Trump administration’s execution of its promises on a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, incentives for domestic bitcoin mining, and other issues. The broader market may also benefit as we enter into the expansionary phase of the bitcoin four-year historical cycle, which tends to see explosive growth in the final year.

It will be interesting to see whether this new administration will impact the market cycles to which the cryptocurrency sector has grown accustomed, or whether it will mark a significant departure from historical trends.

Google has agreed to acquire a part of HTC’s extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality hardware following the recent launch of its Android XR platform.

The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive intellectual property rights, according to the Taiwanese firm. HTC will retain rights to use and develop the technology.

The transaction marks the second major deal between the companies after Google’s $1.1 billion purchase of HTC’s smartphone unit in 2017.

Google said the acquisition will accelerate Android XR platform development across headsets and glasses. The move comes as tech giants race to establish dominance in XR technology, with Apple and Meta maintaining their lead in the virtual reality market.

Google and HTC will explore additional collaboration opportunities, they said.

After a leaked page detailed Solana and XRP futures on CME, a spokesperson confirmed that it was an early mock-up and no official plans have been finalized yet.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a global leader in derivatives trading, may be gearing up to introduce futures contracts for Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XRP) as early as Feb. 10, according to a leaked page from their beta website. While the page was quickly removed, it detailed key specifications for the contracts.

However, Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that a CME spokesperson described the beta website as a draft environment used for mock-ups, which was mistakenly made public. 

“No official decisions have yet been made about launching futures contracts for either token,” the spokesperson clarified.

James Seyffart, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, commented on the leak, stating, “Honestly, it makes sense and is largely to be expected if true.”

According to the leaked details, the futures contracts for both Solana and XRP would be available in standard and micro sizes.

Solana’s standard contracts would feature a 500 SOL lot size, with micro contracts reduced to 25 SOL. Similarly, XRP’s standard futures contracts would involve 50,000 XRP per lot, with micro contracts sized at 2,500 XRP.

All contracts are expected to settle in U.S. dollars, making them convenient for institutional players wary of dealing with direct crypto settlements.

The reelection of Donald Trump and the resignation of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler have led to renewed optimism among investors, with firms racing to bring products like Solana and XRP ETFs to market.

ProShares, for example, submitted a Solana futures ETF application on Jan. 17, while WisdomTree filed for an XRP ETF in December 2024. Other firms, including Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital, are also vying to introduce various ETFs.

Seyffart noted that the availability of Solana futures on CME could address questions about whether the current Solana futures market—dominated by Coinbase—has the necessary liquidity for such products. “I’m not sure if the Coinbase SOL futures are large and liquid enough,” Seyffart remarked in an earlier tweet.

• It’s an ultra-wide zoom lens designed for full-frame cameras like the Canon EOS R8
• Practically identical design to the RF 28-70mm F2.8 IS STM
• A £1,249 list price – we’ll confirm US and Australia pricing asap

Canon has unveiled its latest ultra-wide angle zoom lens for it’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, the RF 16-28mm F2.8 IS STM, and I got a proper feel for it during a hands-on session hosted by Canon ahead of its launch.

It features a bright maximum F2.8 aperture across its entire 16-28mm range, and is a much more compact and affordable option for enthusiasts than Canon’s pro RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS USM lens. Consider the 16-28mm a sensible match for Canon’s beginner and mid-range full-frame cameras instead, such as the EOS R8.

Coinbase has petitioned a U.S. appeals court to rule on whether or not the crypto trading activity on its platform should be subject to securities laws.

In a Tuesday court filing, lawyers for Coinbase urged the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to hear its case, arguing that it “presents the single best opportunity to decide the fundamental legal question of how to treat the secondary trading of digital assets.”

“This case cries out for the Court’s immediate attention,” lawyers for Coinbase wrote in their petition. “Whether secondary-market trading of digital assets falls within the federal securities laws is a question of immense importance to the crypto industry, consumers, financial institutions, and lower courts in need of guidance. This case presents an ideal vehicle to address that question and provide clear rules for this multi-trillion-dollar industry.”

Coinbase argued that crypto trading on its platform should not actually trigger federal securities laws because secondary crypto transactions don’t meet all the prongs of the Howey test, the long-standing legal framework used to decide what qualifies as an “investment contract.” Because buyers and sellers on Coinbase’s platform are matched in a blind bid-ask system and are therefore anonymous to each other, there can be no common enterprise between them, the filing said.

The exchange’s petition comes two weeks after the Southern District of New York (SDNY) issued a rare stay in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Coinbase, allowing Coinbase time to appeal to a higher court for clarity.

The SEC sued Coinbase in June 2023 for allegedly acting as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. When Coinbase attempted to get the suit dismissed, the district court judge overseeing the case denied its motion, finding that the SEC had made a “plausible” argument that the exchange was violating federal securities laws. On Jan. 7, however, the judge punted the question to a higher court, writing “conflicting decisions on important legal issues necessitate the Second Circuit’s guidance.”

The SEC’s case against Coinbase will be put on pause while the exchange seeks answers from the Second Circuit.

The same day Coinbase’s petition was filed, the SEC – now under the leadership of Republican Acting Chair Mark Uyeda – announced the formation of a crypto task force spearheaded by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce. The move signals a shift away from the agency’s “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto under former Chairman Gary Gensler.

“To date, the SEC has relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively, often adopting untested legal interpretations along the way,” the SEC said in a statement. “Clarity regarding who must register and practical solutions for those seeking to register, have been elusive. The result has been confusion about what is legal, which creates an environment hostile to innovation and conducive to fraud. The SEC can do better.”