- February 16, 2025
- Category: Crypto
The top crypto stories of the week include Argentina’s LIBRA token collapsing 94% after a promotion from President Javier Milei, triggering a political scandal, Ethereum developers fast-tracking upgrade cycles, Binance reaching a legal pause with the SEC, Strategy (ex-MicroStrategy) expanding its BTC holdings, and Grayscale filing for a Cardano ETF.
Crypto Scams, Argentine Style
On February 14, after being mentioned on social media by X by Argentine President Javier Miley, the LIBRA token reached a peak market cap of $4.56 billion but fell by 94% over the next few hours.
The project was presented as a tool for “stimulating the growth of the Argentine economy.” The KIP Protocol team was behind the launch.
After the collapse, Miley deleted the promotional post, clarified that he simply “supported a private initiative,” and accused political opponents of using the incident to their detriment.
According to Lookonchain, eight wallets associated with the project withdrew liquidity of more than $107 million (57.6 million USDC and 249,671 SOL).
According to Bubblemaps, 82% of the project’s supply was unlocked and available for sale from the start.
Some Argentine politicians are threatening to impeach the president over his connection to the failed token.
“This scandal, which shames us internationally, requires us to file an impeachment request against the president,” said opposition coalition member Leandro Santoro.
Accelerating Ethereum Development and Pectra Details
Ethereum Foundation developer Tim Beiko recommended locking in the scope of the upgrade before the previous hard fork is implemented on the mainnet. According to him, this will allow for a faster transition to a specific set of proposals.
The execution layer developers also confirmed the schedule for the rollout of the Pectra upgrade:
February 14 — client teams will release the updated software;
February 24 and March 5 — the hard fork will take place on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets, respectively.
Plans to accelerate the implementation of the next Fusaka hard fork include:
March 13 — deadline for submitting proposals for included EIPs;
March 27 — client teams decide on their preferences for the scope of the upgrade;
March 10 — the final scale of the upgrade is set.
According to Beiko, this will allow developers to move on to discussing the Glamsterdam hard fork faster.
In a new essay, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made arguments in favor of expanding the transaction space in the L1 network block:
increasing the censorship resistance of transactions;
simplifying and reducing the cost of moving assets between L2 protocols;
the ability to quickly mass-withdraw funds from a “broken” L2 to the base blockchain;
ensuring large-scale and inexpensive issuance of ERC-20 tokens on L1.
“Even in a world where most activity is concentrated on L2, there is value in significant scaling, as it provides simpler and safer application development patterns,” the programmer noted.
On February 8, the volume of daily fees in Ethereum fell below $1 million for the first time in five months, to $731,472.
Binance and the SEC Suspend the Court Proceedings
On February 11, Binance and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a joint motion to suspend the court proceedings for 60 days. The parties explained their decision by creating a special task force on digital currencies, the work of which “can influence the case and ensure its potential resolution.”The SEC’s case was always without merit. We are committed to putting this behind us and continuing to focus on ensuring that Binance remains the safest, most licensed, and trusted exchange in the world,” a representative of the platform explained in a comment for ForkLog.
On February 14, the SEC requested an additional 28 days to consider Coinbase’s appeal, citing expectations from the work of the same task force.
The Most Popular Dog of the Week
The founder and former head of the Binance exchange, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has sparked a wave of meme coins dedicated to his Belgian shepherd named Broccoli.
The entrepreneur first mentioned the dog’s existence in a conversation about the release of meme coins on the social network X.
“How does it work? I post the name and photo of my dog, and people create meme coins? How do they know which one is “official,” if it even matters?” CZ asked.
He noted that many users would like to know more about the pet, but he needs a couple of days to think before such an important decision.
Soon, the entrepreneur published a post about the dog on his profile. He emphasized that he is not launching his own meme coin but allowing for the emergence of similar initiatives in the community.
“I would never have thought that Broccoli would become part of the blockchain ecosystem. […] There is never a dull moment in cryptocurrency,” Zhao noted.
The entrepreneur himself announced his intention to interact with several coins on the BNB Chain.
The influx of users against the backdrop of CZ’s messages led to problems in the operation of the BNB Chain.
Strategy spent over $742 million to purchase 7,633 BTC
Between February 3 and February 9, 2025, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) announced that it purchased 7,633 BTC worth approximately $742.4 million at a price of $97,255. The firm completed the transaction using proceeds from the sale of shares and the STRK Offering.
It should be noted that as of February 10, 2025, Strategy’s portfolio consists of 478,740 BTC, which are valued at about $47 billion with a Bitcoin price of $98,000; the average cost of acquiring 1 BTC for the company is $65,033. In total, the company has already spent $31.1 billion on the purchase of the first cryptocurrency.
Grayscale Filed for Cardano ETF
A subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE Arca) has filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on behalf of Grayscale to create a spot ETF based on the Cardano (ADA) cryptocurrency.
According to the document, the custodian of the Grayscale Cardano Trust fund’s assets will be the Coinbase exchange.
“The exchange notes that the proposed changes to the rules will facilitate the listing and trading of a new type of exchange-traded product – the first based on ADA. This will increase competition between market participants, which will be beneficial for investors and the market environment,” the statement said.
In addition, the document says that the product provides investors with the opportunity to gain access to the Cardano cryptocurrency without having to purchase it directly. This allows for avoiding the complexities associated with the storage and security of digital assets, as follows from the statement.
The 19b-4 application is submitted by exchanges on behalf of issuers and is the second step in the process of filing an application for a spot cryptocurrency ETF with the SEC. Once the application is recognized by the regulator, it will be published in the Federal Register, which will launch the review and acceptance process, the journalists noted.