rewrite this title US crypto policy gets a Christmas miracle

✨ US crypto policy gets a Christmas miracle

Plus: Bitcoin doesn’t kill the planet – here’s proof

GM. Welcome to the Daily Squeeze, where the only unlucky thing about Friday the 13th is if you miss out on these juicy crypto bites.

💼 French Hill has been chosen to lead the Financial Services Committee.

🌱 David Batten exposes the source of all misinformation about Bitcoin’s environmental impact.

🍋 News drops: the Solana ecosystem welcomed more devs than Ethereum, an investor got charged for not reporting crypto capital gains + more

🍍 Market flavor today

The crypto market’s doing an impression of the cool kid leaning against the wall, acting all nonchalant and mysterious as if it’s hiding something 🥸 Today’s Fear and Greed Index dropped a bit to 76 – though it’s still high on the greed side.

Bitcoin is still hanging out near that $100K line, even reaching $102,237 for a moment. This increase came after Donald Trump rang the opening bell at the NYSE and doubled down on his promise to make crypto great in the US and to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Altcoins didn’t wanna miss out on the excitement either:

AAVE and LINK got some extra love after they landed on the shopping list of Trump’s DeFi platform, WLFI;

AVAX benefitted from a $250M investment led by the big dogs: Galaxy, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital.

Ethereum’s also not sitting around picking daisies. Spot ETFs have been hoarding ETH since July, now holding a record-breaking 3.4M ETH after $234M in fresh inflows yesterday alone.

Network activity is popping off, transactions and smart contract calls are hitting new highs – meaning more ETH burned in fees and a tighter supply. If demand holds steady, the $5K ETH target might not be far off.

So yeah, whatever the market’s up to, it’s keeping its cards close to the chest. Maybe it’ll let us in on the secret tomorrow… or maybe it just enjoys keeping us guessing 😏

🥝 Memecoin harvest

When life gives you lemons, memecoins turn them into Lambos (sometimes) 🏎 Check out today’s top moonshots:

The coldest seal on Solana, they say.

Yet another AI project, but this one’s got four agents running on actual computers, streaming their thoughts 24/7. The pump kicked off after Tankwork dropped – a new open-source tool letting any agent unlock full computer access 🤖

What even is a top list without a Pepe of some kind?

The bad boy of Solana, they say.

Data as of 09:30 AM EST.

✨ Hill decks the crypto halls

When you’re decorating for Christmas, the excitement doesn’t hit all at once.

You start with the tree – kinda sad and bare.

Then the lights go up – okay, better, still missing something.

Add ornaments – oh yes, we’re getting there.

You put up the tree topper – the butterflies in your stomach are starting to go insane.

Finally, plugging in the lights… OH MY GOSH, IT’S ALL SO MAGICAL, I WANNA SOB 🎄

Well, the US is kinda doing the same thing – building a pro-crypto tree in the new administration. And every new addition gets more and more emotional.

The latest ornament? House Republicans picked Rep. French Hill to lead the Financial Services Committee. And I don’t wanna bring pronouns into this, but he’s HIM. Here’s a TL;DR:

He already chairs the committee’s digital asset panel;

He cosponsored major pro-crypto bills like the FIT21 (creating clear rules for crypto companies) and the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act (fighting against government oversight in digital currencies);

He’s pro-DeFi, saying it can revolutionize financial markets.

The Financial Services Committee oversees the Fed, the SEC, the CFTC, Wall Street regulations, and crypto policy. So, someone pro-crypto in the lead means there’s finally a shot at smart, forward-thinking rules for the industry.

The tree topper’s in place. Now we gotta wait for a pro-crypto CFTC chair, and the Christmas magic is officially activated 🎅

If you’ve ever argued with a crypto hater, you’ve surely heard the classic “it’s a scam” line (these are the people who heard the word crypto once on TV). But the anti-crypto elite, if you will, prefers to drop this bomb:

Well, Bitcoin environmentalist Daniel Batten said, “Enough is enough with this bs.”

He traced the source of all the bad science about Bitcoin’s environmental impact. Turns out, it all leads back to a single commentary written by Alex de Vries, founder of Digiconomist.

De Vries used the “energy use per transaction” method to claim Bitcoin was an environmental disaster. The catch? That metric is straight-up wrong since Bitcoin’s energy use doesn’t come from its transactions.

Batten pointed out that this method has been debunked four times in academic journals, and all of De Vries’ work has been shredded in another one.

Mainstream media has started ditching the Bitcoin kills the planet narrative. In fact, some outlets now cover its environmental benefits – like helping stabilize energy grids, cutting energy costs, and speeding up the transition to renewable energy.

But the problem is that years of misinformation misled everyone from investment committees to regulators, meaning there’s still a whole lotta re-education that needs to be done.

So, the next time that crypto hater tries to lecture you, ask them their source. If it’s de Vries, tell ’em what you just learned.

But let’s be real – the answer is prolly gonna be, “uhmm ackshually… 🤓☝️ I don’t know.” In that case – smile, nod, and walk away. Some battles are simply not worth the energy.

🍋 News drops

🧑‍💻 For the first time since 2016, the Solana ecosystem welcomed more new developers than Ethereum. That said, Ethereum’s still holding the global crown for total developer activity.

📄 A Texas Bitcoin investor became the first person hit with criminal charges for not reporting crypto capital gains. Back in 2015, he bought 1.3K BTC for about $500 each and then cashed out in 2017 for $3.7M.

📖 Hedera launched its Dynamic Address Book, giving node operators more control and making network management smoother. By submitting updates directly to the mainnet, operators can automate the process, cut down on manual work, and move closer to a fully permissionless network.

🌟 Casey Caruso, a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum, raised $75M to launch her early-stage venture firm, Topology. Backers include Cendana Capital, Accolade Partners, an unnamed OpenAI founder, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and even Paris Hilton.

💸 After months of radio silence, on-chain activity today hints that WazirX might be preparing to reimburse victims. Earlier this year, the exchange took a $230M hit in a suspected Lazarus Group hack.

🍌 Juicy memes