RaaS #586: Trump Scraps European Tariffs!

Neynar Acquires Farcaster, Hashed VC Proposes L1 for Korea, And Moar!

Solana floats the idea of instant tokenized IPOs, followed by community buzz and positive price action for SOL.

X announces Starterpacks, a new tool that curates top posters across topics and regions, helping new users instantly find the best accounts to follow. This will become the fastest way to plug into any community on the platform. Next CT play: how to get listed in Starterpacks.

Neynar is acquiring Farcaster, taking over the protocol, official client, and infra bot Clanker. This positions Neynar to steward the network’s core infrastructure, with a focus on enabling builders to go from idea to revenue on a truly builder-first protocol.

Space raised $20M for its Solana-based prediction market after a chaotic launch sparked backlash. Many believed the raise was capped, only to learn mid-way it wasn’t. The team called it a soft limit, but the unclear framing led to confusion and community mistrust.

The last good news I heard was that Mamdani won.

BitGo priced its IPO at $18/share, raising $212.8M at a $2.08B valuation, becoming the first crypto company to go public in 2026. The custodian, founded in 2013, exceeded expectations, signaling a strong institutional appetite despite broader market caution.

Bitcoin spiked past $90,000 after Trump scrapped his proposed European tariffs, citing progress on an Arctic deal at Davos. Stocks rebounded, ETH broke $3K, and the crypto market saw over $1B in liquidations, mostly from liquidated long positions.

Evearn has partnered with Smartcar to reward EV and hybrid drivers with B3TR tokens, using verified CO₂ savings data powered by Smartcar’s vehicle APIs and secured on VeChain’s blockchain. The integration spans 30+ car brands across Europe and North America, tying real-world driving behavior to onchain incentives.

Your daily dose of bite-sized crypto news.

1. Binance will list Sentient (SENT) with Seed Tag applied.

2. U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs saw nearly $1B in combined outflows.

3. Cork has raised $5.5M led by a16z crypto and Road Capital.

4. CZ said at Davos that exchanges and stablecoins work at scale, with invisible payments, and AI agents next.

5. Wale Moca was slashed for 203 credibility points on the Ethos network.

Litecoin’s next halving is set for 2027, slashing block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 LTC. In a sea of diluted tokens, scarcity narratives still find their place.

It’s a groundbreaking framework.

Top Gainers: SKR, 我踏马来了, WHITEWHALE, ACU, ELSA.

High-signal reads are worth your time, all in one place.

1. Pixels admits Web3 gaming failed to balance ownership and monetization. Play-to-earn attracted fraud, not retention. Their pivot: Chubkins (Web2 mobile) and Stacked (SDK for trackable, fraud-resistant rewards). Tokens now serve growth.

2. Claude Code lets non-technical marketers automate entire workflows, landing pages, competitor scrapes, copywriting, and more, by turning proven frameworks into reusable workflows.

3. Makina disclosed a Jan 20 exploit on the DUSD/USDC Curve pool, where a Weiroll bug let attackers inflate MIM-3CRV prices and drain ~1,299 ETH via oracle manipulation. Makina is recovering funds, sunsetting the Curve pool, and targeting Jan 26 to resume redemptions with a new Uniswap LP model.

4. Justin Sun invested $8M into River, a DeFi protocol building cross-chain stablecoin infra. This coincided with a 24% rally in RIVER, now at a $900M market capitalization. But analysts flagged the surge as leverage-driven, with futures volume outpacing spot by 80x, per CoinGlass.

5. Thailand plans to allow crypto ETFs and futures trading on TFEX under new 2026 rules, aiming to boost investor protection and legitimacy. The SEC cites wallet-free access as a key ETF benefit, while derivatives regulation will anchor crypto under the Derivatives Act.

Hashed VC proposes Maroo, a sovereign blockchain standard for Korea’s KRW-based digital economy. Built for AI agents, programmable compliance, and private yet verifiable transactions, it positions KRW not just as currency but as a programmable coordination layer.

Zama (ZAMA) brings encryption to crypto with FHE, letting smart contracts compute on private data. Live on Ethereum, it powers hidden payrolls, payments, and its own sealed-bid auction. The ZAMA auction is now live, with tokens claimable on February 2. The vision: make privacy the default.

That’s all for today!