The Daily: Bitcoin breaks $100K, Emergence discussions and more

Gmergence! In today's newsletter, bitcoin surpasses $100,000, Mysten Labs co-founder Kostas Kryptos Chalkias discusses how AI may change the crypto industry, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino attributes USDT's surge in market cap to bitcoin and more.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump congratulates bitcoiners on the $100,000 milestone.

Plus, The Block's Emergence conference gets underway in Prague.

Let's get started.

Bitcoin breaks $100,000 milestone

Bitcoin reached a historic milestone of $100,000 late Wednesday, driven by a persistent rally and positive market sentiment following pro-crypto Donald Trump's election win.

• The cryptocurrency gained more than 5% in 24 hours to reach the peak, surging nearly 50% since the U.S. election and over 138% year-to-date.
• Bitcoin broke its prior cycle all-time high of around $69,000 from November 2021 on March 5, reaching $73,000 a week later.
• However, since hitting that high, bitcoin remained rangebound between $50,000 and $70,000 for the better part of seven months until Trump's victory.
• Trump's win last month propelled bitcoin to new all-time highs again, with analysts anticipating that his incoming administration will provide clearer regulations for cryptocurrencies.
• Corporate interest also continues to play a pivotal role in bitcoin's price momentum, with MicroStrategy acquiring more than $13.5 billion worth of bitcoin in November alone, bringing its holdings to 402,100 BTC, valued at over $40 billion.
• Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick highlighted the role of institutional flows into bitcoin, with over $32 billion in total net inflows now generated by the combined U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs.
• Meanwhile, defunct exchange Mt. Gox moved $2.4 billion in bitcoin to an unknown address during cryptocurrency's climb as WikiLeaks turned to the Bitcoin blockchain to protect Julian Assange's Afghan War Logs.

Mysten Labs' Kostas Chalkias discusses how AI may change the crypto industry

Kostas Kryptos Chalkias shared his journey from AI and cryptography to co-founding Mysten Labs, the team behind the Sui blockchain, at The Block's inaugural Emergence conference.

• Chalkias highlighted AI's potential to revolutionize crypto through innovations like "smart wallets" and enhanced blockchain parallelization for faster transactions.
• He also recounted his role in projects like Libra/Diem and Novi at Meta, emphasizing their challenges and eventual sale to Silvergate.
• Chalkias also explained the personal and professional significance of adding "Kryptos" to his name, inspired by his Greek heritage and the crypto industry.

Bitcoin rally, ETF inflows led to USDT market cap surge, says Tether CEO

Also speaking at Emergence, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino attributed USDT's recent market cap surge to a correlation with bitcoin's rally , heavy inflows into the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs and MicroStrategy's aggressive bitcoin acquisitions.

• "Just in the last 20 days, Tether's market cap grew around $16 billion," Ardoino said. "Part of it is due to the fact that there was a very important inflow into ETFs ... [and] many others started to purchase bitcoin at a very fast pace, especially after the election."
• "That required an injection of liquidity from the traditional financial world into the crypto trading world, and when there are these big inflows of liquidity, they end up being transformed into USDT, and that's how our market cap grew so rapidly," he added.
• USDT remains the world's leading stablecoin, with its total supply of over $140 billion contributing significantly to the $200 billion market.

Crypto VCs say it's still early this cycle: 'sell when people are partying, dating supermodels and buying yachts'

Discussing the state of crypto venture on a panel at Emergence in Prague on Thursday, VCs said it was still pretty early in the bull cycle , and they don't yet see retail participation at the same levels of 2021.

• A more crypto-friendly regulatory environment under the Trump administration is a key catalyst for further growth. "I think you're going to see some amazing innovation and even just broader adoption now that there's less pressure on the regulatory side," CMT Digital Investment Partner Charlie Sandor said.
• However, drawing on Warren Buffet's famous framing, Ryze Labs founder Matthew Graham warned, "when people are partying and dating supermodels and buying yachts, that's probably a good time to sell because most of us aren't that good-looking, to be honest."
• Regarding the narratives shaping deal-making in the industry, the VCs were particularly focused on AI agents, with Graham describing the niche as the "most important thing in the industry since DeFi."

Hawk Tuah girl says 'team hasn't sold' as her memecoin tumbles after launch

The Solana-based memecoin HAWK, inspired by Hailey Welch's viral "Hawk Tuah" quote, lost over 90% of its market cap shortly after launch , falling from $400 million to $37 million.

• Allegations of market manipulation surfaced as blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps alleged insiders controlled a substantial majority of the token supply, though Welch and the Hawk team denied these claims.
• Welch asserted that she and the team had not sold any tokens or distributed them to key opinion leaders, highlighting Hawk's tokenomics with a 10% allocation to the team, locked for 12 months and vested over three years.

In the next 24 hours

• Eurozone GDP data is released at 5 a.m. ET on Friday. U.S. nonfarm payroll figures follow at 8:30 a.m.
• U.S. FOMC members Michelle Bowman and Mary Daly will speak at 9:15 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.
• The Block's Emergence conference continues in Prague!

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