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On Jan. 21, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin firmly asserted his sole authority over Ethereum Foundation leadership decisions, stating that it will remain until reforms establish a “proper board.”

“The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a ‘proper board’, but until that happens it’s me,” he said on X.

The post came in response to significant backlash against Aya Miyaguchi, the Foundation’s executive director since 2018, with accusations of inefficiencies during her tenure.

“If you ‘keep the pressure on,’ then you are creating an environment that is actively toxic to top talent,” Buterin said in response to the social media backlash.

No. This is not how this game works.

The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a “proper board”, but until that happens it’s me.

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If you “keep the pressure on”, then you are creating an environment that is…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 21, 2025

EF Backlash Mounts

Buterin announced changes to the Foundation’s leadership on Jan. 18, focusing on supporting dApp developers and promoting decentralization.

However, he emphasized the foundation would not engage in ideological shifts, political lobbying, or take a more central ecosystem role.

There is strong community pressure to promote developer Danny Ryan to a leadership position. On Jan. 22, Ryan, who left the EF in 2024 due to health issues, said, “Some of the discourse has turned counterproductive,” before adding:

“These are real people attempting to sort through and do what is best. With or without me, the EF is evolving and for the better. You’ve been heard, but vitriol is ultimately harmful to this process.”

Just to fill you in: I left the EF last year due to health issues and in an attempt to clear my head after working my ass off exclusively at the EF and on Ethereum for seven years.

I stepped aside, and the EF and the broader Ethereum ecosystem moved on without missing a beat—new…

— dannyryan (@dannyryan) January 21, 2025

Fellow developer Eric Connor announced his departure from the Ethereum ecosystem, stating:

“The Ethereum Foundation is a leftist-driven, anti-winning swamp. 80% of the budget can be cut and Ethereum would function and progress just fine.”

Meanwhile, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano highlighted all the good things that the EF has done, stating, “Ethereum is much bigger than the EF,”

I am not an EF apologist or think that the EF is perfect and can do no wrong, but I think it’s worth highlighting some of the positive stuff they’ve done recently:

– Revived the @ethereum account (it’s no where near good enough yet, but it’ll get better)
– Moved 50k ETH into a…

— sassal.eth/acc (@sassal0x) January 22, 2025

ETH Price Flounders

Nevertheless, the situation appears to have created tension between Buterin’s desire to reform the Foundation while maintaining control over leadership decisions. Additionally, the dissent and recent EF ETH sales have dampened ETH prices, which have been consolidating for the past month.

ETH has gained 2.4% on the day to reach $3,330 at the time of writing, but most of the other altcoins are still outperforming it.

The asset failed to follow Bitcoin, XRP, and Solana to existing or new peaks and remains down 32% from its 2021 all-time high.

This is all despite US President Donald Trump actively buying ETH and the premise of staked Ethereum ETFs being approved by the SEC soon.

Tension within the Ethereum (and Bitcoin) communities is nothing new, and the ecosystem has survived and improved.

the last time there was this dissent in Ethereum

was February 2020 with the gory fight and eventual rejection of ProgPoW

(this is financial advice) pic.twitter.com/8P8vBJ2qra

— DCinvestor (@iamDCinvestor) January 21, 2025

Edyme’s foray into the crypto universe is nothing short of cinematic. His journey began not with a triumphant investment, but with a scam. Yes, a Ponzi scheme that used crypto as payment roped him in. Rather than retreating, he emerged wiser and more determined, channeling his experience into over three years of insightful market analysis.

Before becoming the voice of reason in the crypto space, Edyme was the quintessential crypto degen. He aped into anything that promised a quick buck, anything ape-able, learning the ropes the hard way. These hands-on experience through major market events—like the Terra Luna crash, the wave of bankruptcies in crypto firms, the notorious FTX collapse, and even CZ’s arrest—has honed his keen sense of market dynamics.

When he isn’t crafting engaging crypto content, you’ll find Edyme backtesting charts, studying both forex and synthetic indices. His dedication to mastering the art of trading is as relentless as his pursuit of the next big story. Away from his screens, he can be found in the gym, airpods in, working out and listening to his favorite artist, NF. Or maybe he’s catching some Z’s or scrolling through Elon Musk’s very own X platform—(oops, another screen activity, my bad…)

Well, being an introvert, Edyme thrives in the digital realm, preferring online interaction over offline encounters—(don’t judge, that’s just how he is built). His determination is quite unwavering to be honest, and he embodies the philosophy of continuous improvement, or “kaizen,” striving to be 1% better every day. His mantras, “God knows best” and “Everything is still on track,” reflect his resilient outlook and how he lives his life.

In a nutshell, Samuel Edyme was born efficient, driven by ambition, and perhaps a touch fierce. He’s neither artistic nor unrealistic, and certainly not chauvinistic. Think of him as Bruce Willis in a train wreck—unflappable. Edyme is like trading in your car for a jet—bold. He’s the guy who’d ask his boss for a pay cut just to prove a point—(uhhh…). He is like watching your kid take his first steps. Imagine Bill Gates struggling with rent—okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but you get the idea, yeah. Unbelievable? Yes. Inconceivable? Perhaps.

Edyme sees himself as a fairly reasonable guy, albeit a bit stubborn. Normal to you is not to him. He is not the one to take the easy road, and why would he? That’s just not the way he roll. He has these favorite lyrics from NF’s “Clouds” that resonate deeply with him: “What you think’s probably unfeasible, I’ve done already a hundredfold.”

PS—Edyme is HIM. HIM-buktu. Him-mulation. Him-Kardashian. Himon and Pumba. He even had his DNA tested, and guess what? He’s 100% Him-alayan. Screw it, he ate the opp.

TRUMP memecoin riches have spurred billions of dollars for the newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump, an amount he termed as “peanuts” compared to corporate bigwigs in his first address of the token since launch.

“I don’t know much about it other than when I launched it. I heard it was successful,” Trump said in a press conference on Tuesday when asked by a reporter. “Where is it today? Several billion?

“That’s peanuts for these guys,” he added, referring to the networth of other businessmen in the room that included SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

Token prices zoomed 25% in the past 24 hours, beating gains in bitcoin (BTC) and other majors, to reverse losses from earlier in the week. It sits at an $8 billion market capitalization as of Wednesday morning, up nearly 900% since going live.

Trump also unveiled a $500 billion joint venture termed Stargate at the event, which aims to build data centers in Texas and would invest in AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile, some see TRUMP as a bet on the Republican’s popularity and policies in his term, with ripple effects on how it may shape up Web3 and memecoin markets.

“Longer term, TRUMP coin could act as a barometer for public sentiment towards Trump’s presidency,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands told CoinDesk in a message. “Culture memes and tokens are essentially a highly variable public polymarket of culture and zeitgeist, and we’ve seen this play out accordingly.”

“(However) If the initiative is perceived as a cash grab without further engagement, we may well see a crypto chill for meme tokens, potentially draining attention and liquidity out of the meme space. How the TRUMP token is handled is likely to have a ripple effect on trust and reputation for the entire crypto and Web3 industry,” Siu added.

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The UK government borrowed more than expected in December, underlining the challenge facing chancellor Rachel Reeves as she tries to restore confidence in her fiscal plans and kick-start growth.

Borrowing — the difference between public sector spending and income — was £17.8bn last month, £10.1bn more than in December 2023, and the third highest in any December on record, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday. 

It was above the £14.1bn expected by economists polled by Reuters, and the £14.6bn forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK fiscal watchdog, in its most recent set of projections made in October.

In the first nine months of the fiscal year, borrowing was £129.9bn, which was £8.9bn more than in the same period in the previous fiscal year. It was also the second-highest borrowing in the April to December period since monthly records began in January 1993.

Jessica Barnaby, deputy director for public sector finances at the ONS, said that “spending on public services, benefits, debt interest and capital transfers were all up, while an increase in tax receipts was partially offset by a reduction in National Insurance contributions, following the rate cuts earlier in 2024”.

Reeves has sought to reassure investors after the UK’s borrowing costs this month climbed to the highest level since the global financial crisis, threatening her ability to meet a self-imposed fiscal rule in which day-to-day spending is covered by tax receipts.

Following the release of December’s borrowing figures, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the treasury, said: “Economic stability is vital for our number one mission of delivering growth, that’s why our fiscal rules are non-negotiable and why we will have an iron grip on the public finances.”

The OBR, which has to produce two forecasts every financial year, will provide an update on March 26 on whether Reeves is still on track to meet her own borrowing rules.

UK borrowing costs have eased since figures last week showed inflation unexpectedly slowed in December, and a global bond sell-off abated.

But the government remains under pressure to turn around the economy, which grew just 0.1 per cent in November after mild contractions in September and October.

“While the bond market has calmed in the last week and fears of an emergency mini-Budget have subsided, the chancellor will be very aware of the dissipation of government finances as we head towards the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecast scheduled for 26 March,” said Joe Nellis, economic adviser at MHA, the accountancy and advisory firm.

Sterling remained 0.2 per cent lower at $1.23 following the release of the figures.

Meta is luring TikTok creators over to its platforms with the promise of cash bonuses, content deals, and support to grow their communities. The company announced on Tuesday that eligible TikTok creators will be able to earn “up to” $5,000 in bonuses over three months for posting Reels on Facebook and Instagram.

These creators will also get access to the Facebook Content Monetization program, which allows creators to earn money for their videos, photos, and text posts on Facebook. Additionally, Meta will offer some TikTok creators content deals to help grow their audiences on Instagram and Facebook.

Some TikTok creators will also get a one-year trial of Meta Verified, which includes a verified badge, account support, and impersonation protection. (The company did not share the criteria for whose will receive access).

While TikTok is back online in the U.S. after going dark for 12 hours over the weekend, the ByteDance-owned social network is still missing from app stores. Although President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to delay the TikTok ban deadline by 75 days and told the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban’s penalties, it’s unknown when (or if) the app will return to Apple and Google’s app stores.

Meta is clearly taking advantage of TikTok’s current troubles by poaching and attracting some of the service’s creators.

The company also said it’s rolling out changes to Reels to make the short-form video format more appealing to TikTok creators. For instance, U.S.-based Instagram creators can now publish Reels up to three minutes long, a notable increase from the previous 90-second limit. On TikTok, however, creators can record videos up to 10 minutes long, and in some cases, upload content up to an hour in length.

In addition, Meta is going to make Reels more prominent, as the company plans to recommend Reels in more places across Instagram in Facebook. For instance, people may start to see recommended Reels higher up in their home feed. Plus, they may see more reels in their search results.

To further court TikTok creators, Meta notes that it has optimized its ranking systems to allow newer creators to break through to new audiences.

Meta will also allow creators to show their Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube handles and follower counts in their Facebook profiles to boost their credibility on its platform.

Meta already made other changes to take advantage of TikTok’s current uncertainty in the U.S.

On Sunday, Meta revealed that it’s going to launch a CapCut-like app called Edits next month. On Friday, it introduced updates to make it easier for Instagram users to find Reels that their friends and followers are liking on the platform. The app will also encourage users to start conversations about Reels through a new “reply bar.”