Did DeepSeek crash Crypto?

Become a Smarter DeFi investor in just 7 minutes per week

The DeFi Edge shares the best DeFi strategies, insights, & analysis so you can be early to the next opportunities.

By EdgyJanuary 27, 2025

Sponsored By


DeepSeek, a small Chinese AI startup, just nuked our charts.

They released an AI model that rivals ChatGPT.. The wild part? It only took ~$6M to develop and they open-sourced it. OpenAI has raised $17.9B so far to give a comparison.

The market is freaking out that US tech companies are overvalued. So traders sold off US stocks — and dragged crypto down too.

While the market sees a threat, I believe DeepSeek is bullish for crypto.

  • Open-source means we can all use it.
  • They’ve brought the costs of inference down massively as well.

Your boy is HOLDING STRONG. Remember when the markets crashed a few weeks ago about Quantum computing fears, and Crypto bounced back a few days later?

My game plan: Survive, buy the dips, profit when the chaos is over.

This cycle hasn’t topped.

Here’s what we got today:

  • Trump keeps delivering. New bullish regulatory announcements.
  • Jupiter updates. Major reveals from the top exchange on Solana.
  • Around the web. f(x) Protocol has expanded to Base, Fluid introduced the Multiply feature, Ethstrategy released the whitepaper, and more.

Today’s email is brought to you by UniversalX — the first chain-agnostic trading platform.

Here’s your Edge 🗡️!


Regulations

Crypto Policy: The Best Week We’ve Ever Seen

Judge image
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA

From rumors of tax reforms to a national stockpile — it was like a wishlist come true for the crypto industry. Let’s break them down.

#1. No capital gains tax for US crypto?

Capital gains tax applies to the profit made from the sale of certain assets such as stocks, real estate, and other investments.

Reportedly, US-based crypto projects won’t have any capital gains tax. And non-US projects will have a 30% capital gains tax.

If true, the impact will be massive

  • Money will heavily flow into US-based tokens.
  • Builders will bring their company to US and issue tokens from there.

But this has also raised some concerns. While centralized coins like XRP are based in the US, crypto blue chips like BTC & ETH aren’t exactly “US-based”.

Crypto community wouldn’t like the US govt placing XRP over BTC.

Now, the source for this rumor is Eric Trump. Many reputable media orgs have reported it. But I haven’t seen a direct video clip of him telling that.

So, it’s still a rumor for now.

#2. Hopeful regulatory appointments

The Trump administration took significant steps toward clarifying crypto regulations.

  • New Crypto Working Group: A task force with members from the Treasury, SEC, CFTC, and more. It’ll be chaired by David Sacks, the AI & Crypto Czar. They’ll deliver legislative proposals by July 2025 to advance crypto in the U.S.
  • SEC Crypto Task Force: It’s led by Hester Pierce, who’s known as Crypto Mom. They’ll define clear guidelines, registration pathways, and improve enforcement for crypto companies.
  • Senator Lummis is appointed as Chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee. She is a very vocal BTC supporter. They’ll draft crypto legal frameworks, present them to Congress, and eventually get them passed into law.

These teams can spark a U.S. crypto renaissance, attracting innovation and capital back to the country.

#3. Digital assets stockpile

By July 23, 2025, the crypto working group will also report on the potential for a national digital asset stockpile.

The stockpile will probably hold a variety of assets, built from crypto legally confiscated by government agencies.

While this is bullish for crypto as a whole, it undermines BTC’s claim to unique status as the sole reserve currency.

#4. Musk considering blockchains for DOGE.

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is being led by Elon Musk. And reportedly, he’s thinking of tracking govt. spending onchain.

This aligns with Musk’s goal of slashing $1 trillion in federal expenditures. It’s also a huge win for transparency and accountability.

But there’s doubt. Will the political and bureaucratic machine allow Musk to implement this radical idea? For now, it’s just another rumor circulating on X.

#5. SEC axed SAB 121

SAB 121 was an SEC guidance that required companies to put digital assets under custody as an asset and as a liability.

This was a major blocker for banks and other institutions to offer crypto services like custody services. With this guidance gone, we can expect more institutions to adopt crypto.

And more

There were even more pro-crypto measures from the Trump admin.

  • Tornado Cash Victory: A federal court overturned sanctions, marking a win for crypto privacy.
  • Ross Ulbricht Pardoned: Trump pardoned the founder of Silk Road, the first major Bitcoin marketplace.
  • CBDCs Banned: The executive order banned the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency, at least within some limits. This is great for individual freedom and crypto-native stablecoins.
  • Tech Restrictions Lifted: Trump also rolled back other Biden-era orders that had stifled the tech industry.

It’s ironic. The most pro-crypto events imaginable are happening, yet the crypto markets are trending down.

But Trump has given confidence to the industry. We can now keep building and investing in peace.


Sponsored By UniversalX

UniversalX V2 is Taking Cross-Chain Trading to Another Level.


Crypto is a sea of different chains. It’s a hassle to trade on each one. There’s a lot of bridging, storing funds for paying gas, checking contracts, etc.

Crypto is complicated, but trading across chains doesn’t have to be.

Imagine trading any token on any chain—with no bridges or gas headaches.

UniversalX V2 turns the chaos of cross-chain trading into a one-click experience. One click to buy any token, on any chain, with a unified balance.

And no need to worry about gas or bridging.

Here’s what makes UniversalX V2 game-changing:

  1. Unified Balance. Let’s say you have $5 USDC on Arbitrum and $5 USDT on BNB, you can use the sum to buy $10 of WIF on Solana.
  2. Pay Gas with any token.
  3. Instant Cash to Crypto. Using Google or Apple Pay.
  4. You have full custody of assets and everything is on-chain.

​With the new V2, they’ve developed a really great UI to spot new trends rising. Basically, UniversalX is a go-to platform for trading in crypto.

The cherry on top? UniversalX V2 is available on every app we use. Desktop, iOS, Android and Telegram.

Try UniversalX Today →


Protocol Updates

Catstanbul Recap: Jupiters Big Announcements

Screenshot
Source: @JupiterExchange


Big conferences usually come with big announcements, and Catstanbul didn’t disappoint. Jupiter Exchange organized this event.

Let’s unpack the big announcements.

#1. Jupnet

It’s Jupiter’s upcoming chain.

Here’s the vision: with one account, users will be able to swap any token on any chain to any token on another chain. It merges decentralized identity, omnichain liquidity management, and programmable control.

DOVE (Decentralized Oracles that Excecute and Validate) will be powering this chain. If you wanna learn more about it, read this.

It’s in testnet, and it’ll be a couple of months before we see anything concrete.

#2. Major product upgrades

The team has essentially rolled out a V2of their platform, featuring several exciting upgrades:

  • Upgraded User Interface on Jup.ag.
  • Jupiter Portfolio. They’ve acquired Sonar Watch, a top portfolio tracker. It’s now available here.
  • Organic score gives users a real-time score of how much activity behind a token is organic. A new trending page will highlight top organic tokens.
  • Ultra Mode for trading. At the technical level, It’ll have innovations like real-time slippage estimation, dynamic priority fees, optimized transaction landing, and Jupiter Shield (not live yet). For users, the trading experience should feel 10x better.
  • Upgraded Mobile application to keep up with the Ultra mode and other changes.

These changes are significant and they’ll improve the user experience significantly.

#3. Virtuals is expanding to Solana

Virtual Protocol led the AI Agent narrative on Base. And now, they are expanding to Solana.

(I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist. But Coinbase still not listing $VIRTUAL is a massive fumble by them. And it might have accelerated Virtual’s Solana expansion.)

As part of the expansion, Virtual will be establishing its own Meteora pool.

But how does this tie back to Jupiter?

  • Firstly, Meteora is Jupiter Exchange’s sister protocol.
  • Jupiter team also worked closely with Virtuals for this expansion.

​You can read more about it here.

#4. Some Tokenomics updates

  • 3B JUP was burned on the final day of the conference.
  • 50% of Jupiter Exchange protocol fees will go towards $JUP buyback.
  • Recently they had airdropped to >$600M to ~2M qualified wallets. Their annual airdrop is known as Jupuary.

#5. And more

The announcements weren’t limited to the above four. There were more. Below are three more significant ones.

  • They introduced an idea that’ll allow users to deposit JLP & borrow USDC
  • Shaw from ai16z is launching Jupiter Magic Fund to support AI Agent sector.
  • Jupiter acquired a majority stake in Moonshot, a memecoin-focused mobile app. It became massively popular with the $TRUMP coin.

People loved the announcements, especially the buybacks. The price appreciated, but then the market’s kinda crashed.

Jupiter is already my go-to exchange on Solana. And these announcements have given plenty more to be excited about Jupiter.

Bullish Jupiter.


🚀 DeFi Catalysts

f(x) Protocol has expanded to Base. They launched bFXN, a new governance token that’ll capture all the revenue generated on Base.

Fluid has introduced the “Multiply” feature. Users can now easily leverage the position in one click, and see the max APY and all relevant stats.

Solv Protocol has integrated SolvBTC with Beets Finance, Silo Finance, and Avalon Finance on Sonic Labs.

Spectra Finance went live on Sonic with a 2x dApp multiplier. It is a Pendle competitor. Yield markets of scUSD and stS are live on Sonic Spectra.

Frax Finance is discussing a $5 million initial investment in World Liberty Financial, the Aave-fork associated with President Trump.


🪂 Airdrop Alpha

Anime has launched $ANIME. Eligible members include the Azuki community, Hyperliquid stakers, Arbitrum community, and Kaito yappers.

Modular ecosystem is expanding. Here are some potential airdrop opportunities in the modular ecosystem.

Thorchain has become insolvent. Node operators will have a 90-day pause on THORFi Lending and Savers redemptions to protect the network


🚀 New Launches

YieldNest launched NestAI. It is an autonomous DeFAI agent that optimizes DeFi strategies, reallocates assets, and maximizes yield.

Etherealize came out of stealth. It is the institutional and BD arm of Ethereum funded by the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik.

Eth Strategy released its whitepaper. It is a DeFi protocol that replicates Microstrategy’s BTC strategy with Ethereum using DeFi.

Clout, a new Solana-based SocialFi application, has become popular. It is very similar to Friend.tech.


📰 Industry News

KaitoAI has launched the Yapper Leaderboard Launchpad. Yap holders will vote on which 3 project leaderboards should be launched every week.

Circle has launched Circle Paymaster. Devs can now allow users to pay gas fees in USDC on Arbitrum and Base.

Binance Labs has rebranded to YZi Labs. Binance founder, CZ, will be taking a leadership role in the investment activities.

Ledger cofounder and his wife were kidnapped and rescued. He lost his finger. This incident highlights the importance of privacy.


🐦‍⬛ X Hits

  1. State of the market.
  2. Crypto x AI trends for 2025.
  3. Roundup of the latest DeFAI updates.
  4. Vitalik’s article on scaling ETH in 2025.
  5. Freysa: the first fully autonomous and sovereign AI Agent Framework

😂 Meme

Other Newsletters You Might Like: