Who's up next for the SEC throne

👀 Who’s up next for the SEC throne?

Plus: Did Cobie just burn $17M in tokens?

GM. Welcome to the Daily Squeeze juice bar – where blockchain’s finest fruits get spun, shaken, and poured fresh into your inbox.

🤔 Rumors are swirling about who’s in line to be the next SEC Chair.

🔥 Cobie burned $17 million worth of tokens.

🍊 News drops: the Ethereum Foundation launches Mekong, Detroit residents will be able to pay taxes with crypto + more

🍍 Market flavor today

The crypto market’s throwing a party, and everyone’s invited 🎉 The Fear and Greed Index is in “Greed” at a solid 75. Bitcoin is smashing records like they’re piñatas, jumping to nearly $77K yesterday and lounging around the $76K mark ever since.

Over at the Federal Reserve, they did exactly what everyone expected: cut interest rates by 25 bps. They’re still trying to slow down the unemployment rate, but not so hard that inflation stops cooling. And apparently, Donald Trump’s grand entrance hasn’t changed their script. According to CME FedWatch, there’s a 67.8% chance we’ll see another 25 bps rate cut on December 18.

Now, speaking of Trump and the Fed, their relationship is about as fuzzy as hugging a cactus. In his last term, Trump called Fed Chair Jerome Powell – the guy he appointed, mind you – an “enemy” for not cutting rates. But the thing is – the Fed’s been independent since 1951, and their job is to make the tough calls for the economy’s long-term health, even if it gives politicians a headache. So, when asked whether he’d resign if Trump tried to show him the door, Powell simply said, “No.” Mic drop.

Sliding over to the crypto crystal ball, Raoul Pal, CEO of Real Vision, is serving some spicy predictions 🌶 He thinks we’re entering the phase where Ethereum starts to outpace Bitcoin. Why? Regulations are likely to dramatically improve for crypto, leading to two big developments:

1. Utility tokens in DeFi will cook up rewards and yield from the underlying protocol, and most of it’s happening on Ethereum.

2. TradFi will probably start building larger use cases, and they’re likely trusting the most adopted chain (Ethereum) for it.

As for crypto ETFs – those guys are continuing their huge inflow streak. Yesterday, BTC ETFs saw a record $1.37B in inflows, while ETH ETFs had $79.7 coming in.

So, keep that eye on the charts, tiger – those bulls don’t seem to be going anywhere soon 🐯

💼 SEC #Hiring

We’ve already talked about the US SEC Chair Gary Gensler situash. If you’re new here, first of all, heey 😏; second, you can read this edition to catch up on the tea.

Or if ya lazy, TL;DR: Gensler’s LinkedIn is getting this update soon:

‘Cause Donald Trump wants him out ASAP.

Now, the big Q: who’s next in line to run the SEC? Well, a little birdie (Reuters) dropped some names, and here’s the lineup so far:

– Dan Gallagher – ex-SEC Commissioner and the chief legal officer at Robinhood, an investment company that deals with stocks, ETFs, and crypto. Read that again.

– Paul Atkins – another former Commissioner, now advising The Digital Chambers, an advocacy group that promotes digital assets and blockchain. Read that AGAIN.

– Robert Stebbins – former SEC general counsel, partner at law firm Willkie. Umm, the first read was enough, no crypto ties… but he’s chill? Maybe?

So, who’s the one? Well, y’all are gonna have to give it a sec (haha, get it? 🤪 …pls don’t leave). The process could drag out a few weeks, so it’s still too early to say anything.

But from the looks of it, the war against crypto is coming to an end. We made it, folks.

🎸 Smells like burnt tokens

If you’ve been in crypto for a while, you already know Cobie. And if you’re new here, first of all, heey 😏; second, he’s one of the most popular crypto influencers, who’s been in the space since 2012. He also looks like Kurt Cobain (+rep big time).

And he isn’t your average trader. Cobie launched a celebrity token in 2014 (back when memecoins were barely a thing), he helped grow Lido (the largest DeFi protocol), exposed insider traders at Coinbase (which led to an SEC investigation), had a podcast called UpOnly where he chatted with big names like Michael Saylor and Vitalik Buterin… so, you know, he’s kinda a big deal.

However, the infamous FTX collapse in 2022 hit him hard, so he took a break… but guess what? He hinted that UpOnly might return.

Naturally, a memecoin called UPONLY was launched. Cobie got 60% of the token’s 1B supply sent to him, but he didn’t wanna get involved – so he burned all the tokens, worth a cutesy little $17 million. His parting words? “See you in hell.”

What a rockstar move.

📰 News drops

🧑‍💻 The Ethereum Foundation launched the Mekong testnet so devs can play around with upcoming upgrades before they hit the mainnet. It’s a short-term testnet, packed with all the EIPs intended for Ethereum’s Pectra fork.

🤔 Italy’s economy minister said he’s open to rethinking the plan to hike crypto capital gains tax after some party members pushed back. The current proposal in the 2025 budget aims to bump the tax rate from 26% to 42%.

🧾 Detroit’s preparing to let residents pay taxes and city fees with crypto through PayPal. This would make Detroit the the biggest US city to accept crypto payments.

🤨 Swiss National Bank’s got its eyebrows raised at crypto. Chairman Martin Schlegel said that despite their growth, these currencies are still a niche phenomenon… bro, define niche.

🚀 Coinbase’s wrapped Bitcoin, cbBTC, is now live on Solana. It’s the first token Coinbase has issued on this blockchain.

☁️ Sky announced that its proposal to rebrand back to Maker got the thumbs-down. Only 18.46% of voters were in favor of bringing Maker back with a limited brand refresh.