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- Judge Rejects $770M Bitcoin Case | Crypto Alpha Week 2 of 2025
Judge Rejects $770M Bitcoin Case | Crypto Alpha Week 2 of 2025
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TL;DR
UK Judge Dismisses $770M Bitcoin Landfill Case
Russia Sells Seized Bitcoins from Bribery Case
Compound Integrates Ethena and Mantle Tokens
Vitalik Buterin on AI Risks and Opportunities
Solana’s New Proposal to Address Scalability
Sol Strategies Invests $25M in Solana
MANTRA and DAMAC Partner for $1B Asset Tokenization
Rena Labs Secures $3.3M Pre-Seed for Verifiable AI
0xGasless Integrates with Avalanche
MeWe Launches on Avalanche
Nation-State Bitcoin Adoption to Drive Growth in 2025
U.S. Regulator Targets Crypto Wallet Providers
And much more!
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Bitcoin Highlights of the Week
James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has lost his legal battle to recover a $770 million Bitcoin hard drive mistakenly thrown away in 2013. The hard drive, containing 8,000 BTC mined in 2009, was disposed of and ended up in a landfill.
The Newport City Council denied Howells access to the site, citing environmental permit restrictions. Judge Keyser dismissed the case, stating it had “no realistic prospect” of succeeding. Despite the loss, Howells' ownership of the Bitcoin was acknowledged, potentially paving the way for future monetization options.
New Hampshire Representative Keith Ammon has introduced a bill to establish a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" in the state treasury. The proposed legislation would permit the state to invest in Bitcoin and other digital assets alongside traditional investments like precious metals.
This marks a significant step in recognizing cryptocurrencies as a viable state investment option. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for next week. This move follows a broader trend seen in other states, with North Dakota also advancing similar legislation, underscoring growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a strategic financial asset at the state level.
Metaplanet, a Tokyo-based company, has set a bold target to acquire 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025, up from its current 1,762 BTC valued at $175 million. This aggressive strategy aligns with bullish bitcoin market predictions, with prices expected to surpass $200,000.
The company, led by CEO Simon Gerovich, began integrating bitcoin into its treasury in April 2024 and has since grown rapidly. Metaplanet used various financial tools, including loans and bond issuances, to fund its acquisitions. It forecasts significant revenue growth and aims to become a key player in the global bitcoin space through systematic accumulation and expansion.
Russian authorities have begun liquidating part of the 1,032 bitcoins seized from Marat Tambiev, a former investigator convicted of accepting bribes. The bitcoins, confiscated in 2023 following a court ruling, were allegedly obtained from the Infraud Organization in exchange for not seizing their assets.
Tambiev, currently serving a 16-year prison sentence, had split the bitcoins into smaller amounts, causing legal challenges for bailiffs attempting to sell them. So far, authorities have been authorized to sell $10 million worth of BTC, with plans to liquidate more. Tambiev's co-accused also face significant legal consequences.
Thailand is launching a pilot program in 2025 to enable tourists to use Bitcoin for transactions in Phuket, a popular tourist destination. The initiative, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Pichai Chunhavajira, will operate within existing legal frameworks, allowing visitors to register Bitcoin through a Thai exchange and verify their identities before making purchases.
The program aims to integrate digital currency into everyday transactions, making digital payments more accessible in tourism-focused cities. BTC transactions will be converted into Thai baht through a clearinghouse, promoting competitiveness and enhancing Thailand’s business opportunities in the digital era.
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Ethereum Highlights of the Week
Compound Finance has added Ethena's stablecoin USDe and Mantle's liquid staking token (LST), mETH, to its decentralized lending platform. Approved through a vote by Compound’s tokenholders on January 8, 2025, these tokens are now eligible as collateral.
The move reflects the growing adoption of yield-bearing stablecoins and LSTs in decentralized finance (DeFi). Compound’s total value locked (TVL) is currently $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, the DeFi market’s total TVL approaches $117 billion, driven by the rise of liquid staking tokens. Ethena's USDe has also become the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, offering competitive annual yields.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, has voiced both caution and optimism regarding artificial intelligence (AI). In a series of tweets, he highlighted the existential risks AI poses, particularly the emergence of self-replicating autonomous systems that could permanently diminish human control.
However, Buterin also praised AI's potential to enhance human creativity, likening it to "mecha suits for the mind." He emphasized the importance of designing AI agents, such as those that replace chat-based systems, to empower users rather than disempower them, stressing the need for careful development to ensure AI serves humanity's interests.
Bhutan’s new special administrative region, Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), plans to include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin in its strategic reserves to strengthen its economic resilience. This move marks one of the first official integrations of digital assets into a region’s financial strategy.
GMC aims to focus on cryptocurrencies with substantial market capitalizations and liquidity, ensuring ease of trade. The decision follows the enactment of the “Application of Laws Act 2024,” which establishes a legal framework for digital assets. Bhutan’s ongoing crypto investments, including over $1 billion in Bitcoin, reflect its long-term strategy.
A recent survey revealed that Ripple (XRP) has overtaken Ethereum (ETH) as the second-most preferred cryptocurrency among South Korean investors, with Bitcoin (BTC) remaining the top choice. Conducted from December 24-26, 2024, the survey gathered insights from over 5,220 participants, showing Bitcoin in the lead, followed by XRP, and then Ethereum.
Ripple has been a popular choice in South Korea since 2017, maintaining strong support despite legal challenges, such as the SEC lawsuit. XRP's 400% price increase in 2024 further solidified its position among investors.
Sonic Labs has announced the integration of Circle’s bridged USDC stablecoin into its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) layer-1 chain, supported via the Sonic Gateway. This integration aims to reduce liquidity fragmentation, simplify token-swapping, and boost liquidity across the blockchain.
Developers can also create decentralized applications (dApps) with consistent contract addresses, ensuring future compatibility with native USDC. The bridged USDC is available from Ethereum, Solana, and Fantom via deBridge. Sonic Labs is preparing for its public network launch after completing its Genesis block and aims to reduce latency and transaction fees.
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Solana Highlights of the Week
Solana developers introduced a new proposal, SIMD-215, aimed at fixing scalability issues related to the "state growth problem." The proposal introduces a lattice-based homomorphic hashing function that would alter how the network tracks user accounts.
This function would eliminate the need to recalculate the entire state of accounts by verifying only changed accounts, significantly improving efficiency. By scaling the network to billions of accounts, this update could reduce the workload on nodes and speed up processing. With Solana's growing popularity, this improvement is crucial for maintaining its position in the competitive DeFi space.
Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume reached nearly $3.8 billion in 24 hours, surpassing Ethereum's $1.7 billion and Base's $1.2 billion combined, according to DefiLlama data from January 6. Solana's increasing dominance in decentralized finance (DeFi) is evident, with its total value locked (TVL) growing five times in 2024, reaching over $9.5 billion.
Raydium, Solana's leading DEX, has also seen remarkable growth, with trading volumes increasing tenfold in 2024. Memecoins have played a key role in this surge, accounting for a significant portion of Raydium's volume, further fueling Solana's momentum.
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FTX has stated that Backpack’s acquisition of FTX EU has not been approved by the bankruptcy court, nor has Backpack been authorized to handle creditor repayments. Backpack announced the deal on January 7, claiming it would take over responsibility for repaying creditors in the EU.
However, FTX clarified that Backpack’s statements were made without its knowledge and that the acquisition had not been authorized. FTX emphasized that it remains solely responsible for returning funds to creditors, and Backpack has no authority to make any distributions. This comes as FTX's reorganization plan went into effect, beginning repayments.
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