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Jupiter to Issue $612M JUP Tokens in Wednesday Airdrop

Jupiter, a Solana-based decentralized exchange, will airdrop 700 million JUP tokens to its community on Wednesday in what it is calling the "largest airdrop in history."The airdrop is a part of the project's annual "Jupuary" event, which was voted into existence alongside another event in 2026 in a governance vote in December. It is scheduled to start at 15:30 UTC.Initial concerns were raised about the sustainability of supply increase, prompting the proposal to be amended to include a token audit and burn schedule over the next month.At the time of writing JUP is trading at $0.87 after sliding by 2% over the past 24 hours. The total value of the airdrop is set to be $612 million.Source link

Ethereum Core Developer Eric Conner Departs as Vitalik Dismisses Calls for Leadership Change

Eric Conner, a prominent core developer at Ethereum, has left the ecosystem community after a nearly 11-year affiliation citing network co-founder Vitalik Buterin's dismissal of a leadership shake-up proposal.Conner is a co-author of EIP-1559, the major network change that shifted how transaction fees worked on Ethereum. He isn't officially employed by Ethereum but has advised, invested, and was among those who led the charge on ecosystem growth since its early days.Conner is joining AI-focused protocol Fresya.AI, he said in a follow-up X post.Buterin swatted calls for changing the leadership structure at the Ethereum Foundation, which oversees the development of the second-largest blockchain by market cap.Buterin said on X that he wants to create a "board" to manage the foundation, but...

Solana Validators Made Over $25M in Fees on TRUMP, MELANIA Memecoins

Solana's validators experienced a record influx of over 100,000 SOL, worth nearly $25.8 million, in fees and tips due to intense trading activity of the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens.The peak occurred on Jan. 20, with validators receiving over 87,000 SOL, driven largely by the TRUMP token's rally, before MELANIA attracted bets. The surge in activity led to 24.7 million transaction bundles to ensure success.Of the 4.5 million daily active users on Solana, 1.5 million were unique tippers, showcasing interest in token sniping on platforms like Meteora and Orca.Bundles on Solana refer to collections of transactions that are grouped together and sent to validators for processing. Tippers are users or bots who include additional fees (or tips) in their transactions to...

Donald Trump’s Official Token Surges 25%, Some Observers See it as Bet on His Presidency

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...

Deribit’s Crypto Trading Volume Nearly Doubled to Over $1T in 2024

Need evidence of the crypto market's maturation? Look no further than Deribit, the crypto exchange that registered record trading volumes in 2024.Total trading volume in Deribit's product suite, which comprises crypto options, perpetual futures, volatility futures, and spot market, rose 95% from $608 billion in 2023 to $1.185 trillion in 2024.Options alone registered a trading volume of $743 billion, a 99% year-on-year growth, accounting for a giant share of the total exchange activity. Deribit listed BTC options in 2016 and has since cemented its position as the world's leading crypto options exchange.“Deribit saw an increase in activity throughout the year, particularly in Q4 as institutional investors demonstrated heightened optimism around the U.S. presidential election, as well as the $100k Bitcoin...