Uk Jin

The correlation between Bitcoin (BTC) and the S&P 500 index has recorded 0. Correlation values range from -1 to 1, where values closer to 1 indicate a strong positive correlation, and values closer to -1 indicate a strong negative correlation. According to cryptocurrency media AMB Crypto on the 18th (local time), the correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index recorded 0 on this day. A correlation of 0 means there is no correlation between the two indicators, indicating that Bitcoin is not being influenced by the U.S. stock market. Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index showed a perfect positive correlation in January. However, entering February, their correlation rapidly decreased, reaching 0 on this day. AMB Crypto noted, "The last time Bitcoin and the S&P 500 index correlation recorded 0 was on November 5, 2024, after which Bitcoin surged past $100,000. It will be interesting to see if this pattern repeats itself this time."

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has submitted a revised proposal to launch Ethereum (ETH) spot Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). According to documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 18th (local time), CBOE proposed modifications to exchange rules 4.3, 4.20, and 8.30. This proposal is intended for launching options products for Ethereum spot ETFs. While CBOE had previously submitted a proposal to modify exchange rules for launching options products for all trusts holding Ethereum, this revision narrows the scope to Bitwise ETHW, Grayscale ETHE, and Grayscale ETH. CBOE stated, "Like Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum ETFs should be expanded to enable options trading," adding, "The purpose is to expand investors' choices through exchange-listed options rather than over-the-counter options."

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the company holding the largest amount of Bitcoin (BTC) in the world, plans to acquire additional bitcoins. According to WatcherGuru on the 18th (local time), Strategy announced plans to raise $2 billion to purchase Bitcoin. Strategy plans to raise funds through issuing 0% convertible preferred stock due March 1, 2030. Regarding the reason for this decision, Strategy stated that "this decision was made based on market conditions and other factors."

The aftermath of the LIBRA incident, involving insider trading and rug pulls, still lingers. A co-founder of the decentralized exchange (DEX) Meteora has resigned due to the LIBRA-related incident. On the 18th, Meteora's co-founder 'meow' announced via X (Twitter) that "Ben, Meteora's co-founder, has decided to resign in connection with the recent incident." While stating that "neither Jupiter (JUP) nor anyone at Meteora engaged in insider trading or misconduct," he explained that "Ben's recent actions had some inappropriate aspects," citing this as the reason for resignation. However, investors seem reluctant to accept meow's claims. One X user commented on meow's tweet, questioning "how a Jupiter employee using the address 'doodoo' managed to snipe three tokens launched by Kelsier Capital (the development company behind LIBRA's launch)." The user further emphasized that "a detailed explanation is needed on how the Jupiter employee obtained inside information." Meanwhile, as community-centered allegations of Jupiter's involvement in insider trading emerged, Jupiter's token price has plummeted. As of 2:41 PM today, Jupiter is trading at $0.7369 on CoinMarketCap, down 12.12% compared to the previous day.

According to the Token Mindshare top gainers (an index quantifying the influence of specific tokens in the virtual asset market) from Kaito, an AI-based Web3 search platform, the top 5 cryptocurrency-related keywords attracting the most attention as of the 18th are Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Tether (USDT), FTT, and MELANIA. Firstly, Ethereum, which ranked first, is receiving investors' attention as optimism emerges. As of 11:59 AM today, according to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum is trading at $2,712, up 1.59% from the previous day. During the overnight session, Ethereum showed a sharp upward trend, briefly recovering the $2,800 level, though the gains have slightly moderated now. Crypto influencer Ali Martinez shared on X (Twitter) that "Ethereum's key support price is $2,425. At this price level, 10.33 million addresses have accumulated 62.43 million Ethereum." Solana took second place. Solana has been facing investor criticism due to recent meme coin-related incidents. The issue was with meme coins such as MELANIA (ranked 5th), Central African Republic meme coin (CAR), and Argentina meme coin LIBRA, which are associated with celebrities or countries, experiencing sharp rises followed by steep falls after their creation. Particularly with LIBRA, as insider trading allegations were confirmed to be true, negative public opinion toward Solana has been forming. In the futures market, Solana short positions (betting on price decline) have significantly increased. At the same time, Solana is trading at $178.34, down 4.61% from the previous day. Tether ranked third. Investor interest has intensified as Tether, which operates a stablecoin business, revealed its venture into new business areas. The day before, Tether announced, "We are developing brain-computer interface technology. Currently, the open-source platform BrainOS is under development, and we will maintain this technology decentralized and transparent." Lastly, FTT, the native token of the bankrupt exchange FTX, ranked fourth. This increased attention is attributed to the commencement of FTX's repayment process. At the same time, FTT is trading at $2.27 on CoinMarketCap, up 4.67% from the previous day. Additionally, investors showed interest in Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin (BTC), PAIN, FABLEBORNE, and USDC.

The Story Foundation announced on the 18th that Aria Protocol (hereinafter 'Aria'), a Story blockchain-based Intellectual Property (IP) Real World Asset (RWA) project, has acquired partial music rights to over 50 songs from global artists including BLACKPINK. Aria raised $10.93 million (approximately 15.7 billion won) through the 'Aria Premiere Launch'. The Aria Premiere Launch is a program designed to tokenize high-quality music IP assets on the blockchain, allowing investors to share revenues generated from the copyrights. Through this, they plan to establish music IP as a more stable financial asset. The songs for which Aria has acquired partial rights include BLACKPINK's 'Yeah Yeah Yeah', 'Ready For Love', JISOO's 'FLOWER', 'All Eyes on Me', and BIGBANG's 'Still Life'. Additionally, since January, Aria has acquired rights to songs by global artists such as Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Maroon 5. The copyrights secured by Aria will be distributed and revenue-shared with users participating in the 'Aria Premiere Launch'. Andrea Muttoni, Chairman of the Story Foundation, stated, "BLACKPINK is an artist with global influence beyond Korea, and the financialization of their music IP will be a crucial milestone in expanding the blockchain-based copyright market."

Capital inflow to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) networks has shown a sharp decline. On the 17th (local time), cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez announced via X (Twitter) that "capital inflow to Bitcoin and Ethereum networks recorded $30 billion last month, showing a decrease of more than 30% compared to the previous month."

Short positions betting against Solana (SOL) have surged in the futures market. On the 17th (local time), cryptocurrency media CoinTelegraph reported, citing Coinalyze data, that the ratio between Solana long positions and short positions has sharply decreased from 4 to 2.5. The increase in short positions indicates that investors hold negative views on Solana's outlook. Solana's price has also fallen in the spot market. As of 10:13 AM on the 18th, Solana is trading at $178, down 5.81% from the previous day according to CoinMarketCap. 'Meme coins' are cited as a factor behind investors' negative outlook on Solana. Crypto influencer Tyler Durden said through X (Twitter) that "the market is angry at Solana." Previously, Solana gained popularity among investors as various meme coins like BONK and WIF emerged from its ecosystem. According to Messari, Solana's revenue increased by 213% in the last quarter, mostly generated from meme coins. However, Solana has recently raised concerns among many investors as meme coins created on the Solana platform have become controversial. Notable examples include MELANIA, CAR (Central African Republic Meme), and LIBRA. These meme coins typically surge initially due to celebrity promotions but soon crash in price. Most recently, LIBRA, which Argentine President Javier Milei personally announced through X (Twitter), has been at the center of controversy. President Milei introduced LIBRA as a "private project for Argentina," and its price quickly surged to $4.7. However, allegations of insider trading including sniping emerged, and the token price subsequently crashed by 95%.

The market continues to be in turmoil due to the memecoin Libra (LIBRA) incident. Furthermore, attention is focused on whether the US government will participate in the investigation. On the 17th (local time), cryptocurrency media CoinTelegraph reported that an Argentine law firm submitted a request to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the memecoin Libra crash. The complaint was confirmed to include a request for investigation of Argentine President Javier Milei. President Milei strongly denies responsibility for the Libra token. Previously, he stated his position that "I didn't promote (the Libra token), I just shared it."

President Javier Milei, who has been identified as being behind the Argentine memecoin LIBRA incident, stated that he only shared information rather than promoting it in response to criticisms directed at him. According to cryptocurrency specialized feed db on the 17th (local time), Argentine President Javier Milei responded to community criticism about promoting the memecoin, saying "I didn't promote it, I just shared (the news)." He further claimed, "Argentina didn't suffer any losses, and only four or five Argentine citizens incurred losses. Most investors were Chinese and American. Those involved in this incident were traders betting on volatility, who were well aware of the risks and participated voluntarily." President Milei is currently indicted on fraud charges related to the LIBRA memecoin incident.

Hayden Davis, the person responsible for the Argentine meme coin LIBRA that caused major controversy in the cryptocurrency market last weekend, has attributed the series of events caused by LIBRA to Argentine President Javier Milei. According to Cryptopolitan on the 17th (local time), Hayden Davis, in an interview with Dave Portnoy, claimed about LIBRA's collapse, "LIBRA was a project with President Javier Milei. It was a long-term project, and President Milei was in charge of promotion. However, an incident occurred, and President Milei's side blocked additional liquidity injection." He further claimed, "After the incident, Milei deleted all his tweets and distanced himself from the project, resulting in me taking all the blame." Meanwhile, regarding the whereabouts of the $100 million that disappeared from the LIBRA token, he maintained that it wasn't his money. Hayden stated, "As far as I know, the funds belong to Argentina. However, it's not clear who legally owns it, and I don't know how to handle it." However, Dave Portnoy, who conducted the interview, remained skeptical, saying, "If you have $100 million right now, I can't understand doing nothing while having the money." Previously last weekend, Hayden Davis and his team Kelcier Capital launched the LIBRA token. When President Milei introduced the project as a "private project for Argentina," the LIBRA token surged to $5 within an hour of launch. However, this surge was due to Kelcier Capital's sniping operation (quick bulk purchase and profit realization immediately after launch), and it ultimately crashed 95% within an hour, drawing investors' outrage.

On the 17th, MAP Protocol (MAPO) announced through X (Twitter) its plans to integrate with DeepSeek. Accordingly, MAP Protocol is recording $0.0080, up 6.95% compared to the previous day according to CoinMarketCap.

Last weekend, claims emerged that the controversial Argentine meme coin LIBRA was developed by the same team behind another controversial meme coin MELANIA. On the 17th, crypto data platform and audit tool Bubble Map announced via X (Twitter) that "LIBRA and MELANIA are suspected to have been developed by the same team." Specifically, Bubble Map's analysis of cross-chain transactions and patterns between LIBRA and MELANIA tokens revealed that an address (starting with P5tb4) that made $2.4 million in profits from sniping MELANIA sent the profits to a developer-related address (0xcEA). Furthermore, this address was found to be funding the LIBRA developer address and had made approximately $6 million in profits from LIBRA sniping. Early Sunday morning, the LIBRA meme coin surged to $5 immediately after launch, boosted by promotion from Argentine President Javier Milei. However, a rug pull (a scam where project managers suddenly withdraw all funds after collecting investments and disappear) occurred, resulting in a 95% crash in token value within about an hour.

On the 17th, Metaplanet announced through their official X (Twitter) account that they "have acquired an additional 269.43 Bitcoin (BTC)." With this acquisition, Metaplanet's Bitcoin holdings have reached 2,031.41 BTC.

Ripple, the blockchain and digital asset infrastructure leading company that issues XRP, forecasts accelerated development in the digital asset (cryptocurrency) industry this year. On the 17th, Ripple's executive team, including SVP Marcus Treacher, shared their outlook for the digital asset market in 2025, stating that '2025 will be a year of maturity and accelerated development for the digital asset market.' First, SVP Treacher predicted that institutional blockchain adoption would increase due to market demand for improved operational efficiency and connectivity. He stated, 'The introduction of new institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure and compliance tools will now enable major companies to confidently adopt blockchain to achieve benefits in efficiency and connectivity, expand access to tokenized assets through fractionalization, and create new revenue streams.' He added, 'With improved visibility and seamless integration of blockchain technology, institutions can optimize capital deployment without time zone restrictions and manage liquidity demands more precisely.' Expectations for broader tokenization scope also emerged. Ripple President Monica Long said, 'Tokenization and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) will evolve beyond crypto-specific services to focus on Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization and institutional tools centered on real use cases by global financial institutions.' Specifically, President Long explained, 'While DeFi was primarily for cryptocurrency holders and traders looking to maximize yields on digital assets, it is now shifting towards applying DeFi to traditional and real-world financial use cases.' She continued, 'For example, we can imagine foreign exchange markets with instant and cost-effective transactions, transparently tradeable tokenized commodities, bonds with 24/7 trading and automatic settlement, and real-time tradeable ETFs and mutual funds.' She further predicted that 'Among the 15 major global banks that have piloted tokenized asset products, 10 banks including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS, Standard Chartered, and State Street will collaborate with crypto-based infrastructure providers to launch market-ready products by 2025.' From a technical perspective, acceleration in Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) adoption was forecasted. Ripple CTO David Schwartz predicted that 'The era of institutional adoption will begin through Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) solving privacy, scalability, and interoperability issues.' He stated, 'Along with smart contract development, institutions can design sophisticated financial products tailored to operational and regulatory requirements, from automated syndicated loans to customized derivatives using zero-knowledge proofs.' He further explained, 'ZKP will maximize DeFi's potential and encourage institutions to embrace innovative technology as it meets regulatory compliance while maintaining confidentiality, which is crucial for large-scale adoption.'