Hodl Up! Your weekly crypto catch up: Week 3 '25
Crypto markets catching fire with just two days left for Trump to sit in the office, Pump fun gets sued for rug pulls and where is the NFT market at? Everything in this week's HODL UP!
Are we finally there? The final leg of this 4 year cycle’s bull run? Or is there even a four year cycle this time anyway? Will Trump’s strategic reserve blow open the four year cycle forever? Anyways, the market seems to be responding well as Trump taking office comes closer.
A very curious case where the platform Pump.fun is getting sued for the projects that ‘scammed‘ users on the platform. We’ll discuss that too and with Makersplace shutting down , where is the NFT market sitting at?
NOTE: NOTHING EVER MENTIONED IN ANY OF OUR CRYPTO TALK’s POSTS/NEWSLETTERS/CONTENT IS FINANCIAL ADVICE. ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
The Final Leg of the Bull Run?
The crypto market could get a significant boost after Donald Trump assumes office on January 20th, well at least that’s what my X timeline thinks. Trump's administration is expected to bring crypto-friendly policies, which might create the perfect storm for a bullish rally. After all, who doesn’t love a leader who’s openly embraced Bitcoin and even dabbled in NFTs?
The biggest reason for optimism is the strategic reserve that Trump has promised to create. Will he create it? When will he create it? We don’t know. What we do know is that if he does, that might very well be the biggest single event in Bitcoin price history. The US having a Bitcoin Strategive Reserve, damn my eyes get teary just thinking about it.
The market seems to have responded well in the past 3-4 days with Bitcoin again hitting $103k and even the alts doing better than “absolutely getting killed“.
Of course, let’s not forget about Bitcoin’s cyclical nature. Trump’s timing coincides with a post-halving year, historically a period of bullish momentum. So, whether you’re a Bitcoin maximalist or an altcoin enthusiast, the stars seem to be aligning for an exciting 2025.
Will this be the final leg though? If history is to be seen - Yes, this usually would be a time period when the bull cycle goes for a one last hurrah and then wanes into a period of darkness and coldness. If that is the case - do not forget to take profits. But what if that is not the case? What if the ETF, the regulations and maybe the strategic reserve now take us to a period of “ENDLESS BULL“ for Bitcoin ?
Do I think that will happen? Someday yes. Gold doesn’t fluctuate that much anymore - it is an absolute store of value. I’m confident Bitcoin will be that some day, is that day starting 20th Jan? I don’t know.
Pump.fun or Pump.sued?
All the info. in this section is referred from this thread by PixOnChain on X : Thread On Pump Case. I’ll try to get the important points from the thread and discuss them here.
WHAT IS THE LAWSUIT ?
One investor losing $231 on $PNUT started the lawsuit but then things started to unfold in unexpected ways.
The accusations mainly consist of:
• Pump-and-dump schemes.
• No KYC or AML protections.
• Marketing to minors and vulnerable groups.
We’ve discussed the points of minors on our newsletter and websites before and especially with the unrestricted content and ticker names that are going on at pump.fun, well finally someone just sued them over it. 🤷♂️
Some of the worst tokens included tokens named after racial slurs, tokens promoting holocaust imagery and animal harm and don’t even get us started of the time when the livestream feature was turned on by pump.fun - that really was the worst of human beings.
There is also a claim that PumpFun violated the Howey Test: • Investors expected profits. • Tokens relied entirely on PumpFun’s marketing. • No utility—just speculation. If proven true? Every token on the platform could be a security.
If found guilty and pump.fun loses the founders face jail time, heavy fines and permanent bans from financial markets.
But what’s worse? All the tokens will be categorised as securities and exchanges will delist them - causing a huge crash in the crypto memecoin market.
My personal view on this is - pump.fun has been very negligent with the kind of things they have been allowing on their platform and that is catching up with them now. When it comes to pump-n-dump - I don’t think that is something that can be blamed on them, its crypto and moreover its memecoins - people should know what they are getting into.
Anyhow, let’s see how this lawsuit turns out and whether memecoins get affected or not at all.
Where are the NFTs?
The NFT market in 2025 feels like a rollercoaster that’s finally hitting a smoother patch. After the meteoric highs of 2021, when everyone and their dog was minting an NFT, the market faced a rough tumble in 2023 and 2024. Trading volumes in 2024 fell by 19%, and sales dropped 18% compared to the previous year—ouch, right? But as we step into 2025, things are starting to look up.
Collections like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins are proving there’s life after the hype. Pudgy Penguins, for example, recently hit a floor price of $135,000. They’ve expanded their universe with toys, books, and other cool stuff, showing how NFTs can be more than just JPEGs.
Asia is leading the adoption game, with countries like the Philippines and Thailand boasting adoption rates of over 30%. Meanwhile, in the U.S., things are moving slower, with a modest 3.9% adoption rate. Still, platforms like OpenSea, Magic Eden, and Blur are stepping up, adding multi-chain support and making NFT trading smoother and more fun for users.
What’s really exciting, though, is how NFTs are evolving. People are using them in decentralized finance (DeFi), staking, and even fractional ownership. It feels like the industry is maturing, focusing less on hype and more on real-world utility and community engagement. While the wild west days may be behind us, 2025 is shaping up to be the year NFTs either prove they are here to stay or they get lost in the abyss forever.
A Look At The Markets
We have recovered by $300B when it comes to the market cap. Last week we were at $3.28T and this week the global crypto market cap sits at $3.58T. Fingers crossed on $4T with Trump in the office!
Biggest Winner
$XRP : Of course, who else -the project, the myth the legend. $XRP sits at $3.21 at the time of writing. Could we really see an ATH?
Biggest Loser
$ai16z : Everyone deserves a bad week, no worries $ai16z, no worries.
C4 (Crazy Crypto Community Content)
Content 1
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought about time traveling and getting a huge number of Bitcoin for myself. A huge number means 1, cause that’s all I could afford even in 2012.
Content 2
$XRP community has just shown up out of the blue in Q4 2024 and now I realise why this project is still alive after 3 years of nothingness on the price.
Well that’s a wrap for this week folks, really excited to see how the markets respond in the next week though. We might be on the moon or in the McDonalds the next time I write the newsletter. But till then, STAY SAFU.