Bitcoin Bounces Back, XRP Breaks Records, and the Continued Rise of AI.

From Bitcoin’s drop to $89,000 earlier this week to its rapid three-day rise above $100,000, the cryptocurrency market has seen a whirlwind of emotions this week, and there’s a lot of optimism about Bitcoin in 2025, especially with the incoming Trump administration seen as the first… The most “pro-crypto” administration in the history of the United States of America.

With Bitcoin sitting above this descending triangle, is it time for a breakout? Or will it continue to succumb for another month, then erupt in February and March? One of our mentors, IncomeSharks, expects more side action first. However, the next week after Trump’s inauguration will determine the direction in which Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will move.

XRP has been a major player in the spotlight this week. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, there is a 70% chance of launching an XRP ETF in 2025. Although the SEC appealed the Ripple lawsuit just five days before Gary Gensler resigned as SEC Chairman, this news barely made a dent. In the currency price. XRP to the downside.

The price of $XRP has now surpassed $3, a feat that has not happened in more than seven years. Bullish on all time frames, XRP looks very hot right now. What will happen if an XRP ETF is introduced and approved in 2025? Let’s follow XRP closely and find out.

Side note: XRP momentum is flowing into other “Dino” coins like Algorand, Solana, and Cardano, which are also seeing notable gains. Older generation blockchain projects are benefiting from renewed investor interest, perhaps fueled by broader market optimism and institutional interest. All of this optimism could trickle down to the rest of the cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and lower-cap altcoins, if Bitcoin’s price holds its own after Trump’s inauguration.

This week I interviewed the founder of XION Protocol, Bernt Banksy. Burnt Banksy became infamous because he bought a Banksy painting, tokenized it and promptly burned it, leaving only the NFT version.

XION has been around for over a year. I’ve been following them since launching their testnet and initial campaigns in late 2023, and they’ve now had a successful launch. I had the pleasure of speaking with them after they recently launched their mainnet.

XION is reinventing Web3 because it does not have a wallet for its own blockchain. It is known as one of the first walletless blockchain protocols, lowering the barriers to entry for people new to cryptocurrencies without having to understand how to set up a wallet. They also have one of the highest daily active user-to-market cap ratios, with many people testing XION against other blockchains of similar size and age. Check out my interview with Burnt Banksy, who below explains their approach to mainstream adoption and onboarding the next billion users to Web3 without needing a wallet.

I also spoke with Lingo, the world’s most rewarding token, which has built a large community via Web3 in the past few years. They launched their token and master signing platform in December and have continued to grow since then. Lingo uses community rewards from the actual return on real world assets (RWA); They invested in real estate, and these rewards go directly to token holders and Lingo contributors. I spoke with Lingo’s Vince Hoffman about the platform’s continued growth, how they see real-world RWA assets and tokenization evolving, and what’s next for Lingo DAO and the growth of the community.

Finally, I spoke with Panther Protocol, a DeFi-compliant, privacy-preserving protocol that aims to increase institutional adoption of DeFi. Currently, institutions must trade on Ethereum blockchains that are fully public and transparent, which may expose their transactions and competitive advantages to other players in the industry. Panther has developed technology that incorporates ZK (zero-knowledge) proofs to provide a compliant platform that can also protect transactions, creating a privacy layer that allows institutions to trade more closely the way they are accustomed to in traditional finance. I spoke with Anish Muhammad, co-founder of Panther Protocol, about how ZK, privacy, and AI technology will play a role in shaping a platform designed to attract institutions to cryptocurrencies.

Anish was an early Bitcoin advocate, an advisor to Ripple, and worked on crypto and cryptography in the 1990s during the cypherpunk days. His insights into how cryptocurrencies are shaping up to be mainstream and how regulation can pave the way for more institutions to participate in decentralized finance, highlights how close more capital is to entering the industry.

Panther Protocol’s main platform has been up and running for many years, and their mainnet is finally around the corner. I have a feeling that privacy platforms like Panther Protocol ZKP and Partisia MPC will have a strong impact on the next wave of institutional adoption in DeFi.

While Bitcoin continues to gain attention in mainstream news, some narratives are shaping up for 2025. We’re seeing more AI agents, AI abstraction layers, and now AI in DeFi, coined as “DeFAI,” with DeFi meeting and AI together to upgrade all parts of the Web3 industry.

Although the AI ​​agent narrative is strong and there is a possibility of AI agents taking over a lot of the workloads, there is still a lot of speculation and many cryptocurrency projects claiming to be the next AI superpower. However, the basics are not there yet. I think it will evolve as AI continues to advance, with more processing power being allocated to computing, AI, LLM, and physical AI. Here DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) will also play a role in helping AI agents interact with each other, whether through humanoid robots, IoT devices, autonomous cars, or other devices. As AI grows, I expect DePIN networks will also grow, enabling AI to interact and transact seamlessly.

I’m still very interested in the Peak Network and its growth. It was launched in December 2024 as one of the leading DePIN networks and already has hundreds of thousands of nodes on different dApps, such as Silencio Networ, which allows mobile devices to become nodes, collect voice information, and transact through the DePIN network. Likewise, SkyX on peaq collects real-time weather data, and Teneo, which also has hundreds of thousands of nodes, runs on the Peaq network.

Although I’m early in this narrative, I expect millions of devices, nodes, and IoT devices to join DePIN throughout 2025. I’ll be watching Peaq Network grow. In addition, IoTeX, another DePIN blockchain, is worth mentioning. It’s been around longer than Peaq and initially focused on IoT devices that interface. Over time, it evolved into a full-fledged DePIN network. These are the two main networks in DePIN that I will be following moving forward.

We have partnered with Gasp DEX, is a cross-chain exchange that is completely eliminating gas fees on Ethereum and other EVM chains. When a bull market is in full swing, gas fees can range from $50 to $100 per transaction. GASP Alpha is now available on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and BASE, allowing trading with absolutely no gas fees.

• Gemini Exchange has agreed to pay $5 million to end a lawsuit brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleging that it misled the Financial Derivatives Regulatory Authority in an attempt to launch the first regulated bitcoin futures contract in the United States.

• New Hampshire and North Dakota are moving to create strategic Bitcoin reserves.

• Connect Tether $USDT to move to El Salvador.

• BlackRock launches Spot Bitcoin ETF on CBOE Canada.

• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says Bitcoin is a “Ponzi scheme” that has “no intrinsic value.” (Again)

• On Monday, January 13, Michael Saylor’s company MicroStrategy purchased another 2,530 bitcoins worth $243 million.

• Kenya legalizes Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

• The $870 billion asset manager Standard Chartered Bank will offer bitcoin and cryptocurrency custody services in Europe.

• Circle is donating $1 million to President-elect Trump’s inaugural fund.

• The Department of Justice approved the sale of $6.5 billion worth of Bitcoin from seized Silk Road assets.

• The Dubai government is planning to build a 17-storey crypto tower, which is scheduled to be completed by 2027.

• Italy’s largest bank says it is preparing for potential demand for Bitcoin from “major clients.”

• Texas State Senator Charles Schwertner has introduced a bill to create a strategic bitcoin reserve for the state.

Thanks for reading!

-Ashton Addison, CEO of Crypto Coin Show

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