Memecoin Land – News, Memecoin Trading, Pump.fun and Bullx

REX Shares took a “regulatory end-around” with its Ethereum and Solana staking ETF filings, and the launch looks “imminent,” an ETF analyst says.

Sui validators voted to return $162 million in frozen assets from the Cetus exploit, enabling a full recovery and restart plan for impacted users.

The SEC said protocol staking isn’t a securities transaction, marking a key win for crypto regulation and paving the way for potential ETF staking approval.

Stripe’s president confirms growing interest in stablecoins from banks, but adoption would still require more green lights from regulators.

Bitcoin’s drop below $104,000 puts the asset into a consolidation phase where even lower lows could be tested.

The crypto market is currently facing significant pressure, largely due to US President Donald Trump’s trade war and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions. These factors have put markets under strain, with some analysts predicting that the bull run is over and a bear market may be on the horizon.

In a recent Cointelegraph interview, Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful,” shared his thoughts on the current state of the market and what could be ahead. Despite the turbulence, O’Leary remains optimistic about the future of Bitcoin (BTC). He explains that while the market is under pressure, he still expects Bitcoin to end the year higher as a couple of key factors come into play.

A key issue discussed in the interview is the need for regulatory clarity, especially surrounding stablecoins. O’Leary is particularly focused on the GENIUS Act, which he believes will be passed imminently by the US Congress. “We have been waiting for almost seven years for this legislation. I have a feeling it’s going to make it, and when that happens, it’s a game changer,” O’Leary said.

The passage of the GENIUS Act, which aims to provide regulatory clarity around stablecoins, should boost the adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins. This move is expected to bring much-needed stability and legitimacy to the crypto market, helping to mitigate some of the ongoing risks. O’Leary also shared insights into his personal crypto portfolio, revealing a diversified mix of assets in his portfolio.

To dive deeper into O’Leary’s views on the current state of the crypto market and his personal approach to investing in crypto, make sure to watch the full interview on our channel.

Related: Trump says US will be ‘Bitcoin superpower’ as BTC price breaks 4-month downtrend

Asset manager Canary Capital has filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Pengu (PENGU), the governance token of the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) project, US regulatory filings show. 

The ETF is the latest in a slew of filings for new US investment products tied to spot cryptocurrencies, including altcoins and memecoins. 

According to the filing, the ETF is intended to hold spot PENGU as well as various Pudgy Penguins NFTs. It would be the first US ETF to hold NFTs if approved. 

Additionally, “[t]he Trust will also hold other digital assets, such as SOL and ETH, that are necessary or incidental to the purchase, sale and transfer of the Trust’s PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs,” the filing said. 

Launched in December, PUDGY has a roughly $438-million market capitalization as of March 20, according to CoinGecko.

On March 18, Canary filed to list the first US ETF holding Sui (SUI), the native token of the Sui layer-1 blockchain network.

Related: Canary Capital proposes first Sui ETF in US SEC filing

Policy reversal

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged dozens of filings for new crypto investment products since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20. 

They include filings for proposed ETFs for native L1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), as well as for memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Official Trump (TRUMP). 

Some industry analysts are skeptical that ETFs holding non-core cryptocurrencies will see a meaningful uptake among traditional investors. 

“Pengu ETF announced. Price barely goes up. New ETFs for crypto assets have become an irrelevant joke,” crypto researcher Alex Krüger said in a March 20 post on the X platform. “Most crypto ETFs will fail to attract AUM and cost issuers money.”

Since starting his second presidential term, Trump has reversed the US government’s stance on digital assets, promising to make America “the world’s crypto capital.” 

Under his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, US regulatory agencies brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms.

On March 20, asset manager Volatility Shares launched two Solana futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT). 

They use financial derivatives to track SOL’s performance with one- and two-time leverage, respectively. Spot SOL ETFs are still awaiting regulatory approval. 

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Onchain sleuth ZachXBT said he had identified the mysterious whale who profited $20 million from highly leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX as a British hacker going by the name William Parker. 

According to ZachXBT’s March 20 X post, Parker — who was previously known as Alistair Packover before changing his name — was arrested last year for allegedly stealing around $1 million from two casinos in 2023. 

Parker also made headlines a decade ago for allegations of hacking and gambling, ZachXBT said.

“It is abundantly clear WP/AP has not learned his lesson over the years after serving time for fraud and will likely continue gambling,” ZachXBT said.

Related: Hyperliquid ups margin requirements after $4 million liquidation loss

ZachXBT said his findings are based on a phone number provided by a person who allegedly received a payment from the whale trader’s wallet address. 

He also said that public wallet addresses associated with the whale trader received proceeds from past onchain phishing schemes.

Cointelegraph has not independently verified ZachXBT’s claims. 

Massive leveraged bets

The mysterious whale rose to prominence after profiting approximately $20 million from highly leveraged trades — in some cases with up to 50x leverage — on decentralized perpetuals exchanges Hyperliquid and GMX. 

On March 12, the trader intentionally liquidated an approximately $200 million Ether (ETH) long, causing Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool to lose $4 million. 

Meanwhile, the whale earned profits of some $1.8 million.

Hyperliquid said the liquidation was not an exploit but rather a predictable consequence of how the trading platform operates under extreme conditions. The DEX later revised its collateral rules for traders with open positions to guard against such occurrences in the future. 

On March 14, the whale took another multimillion-long position, this time on Chainlink (LINK).

Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are leveraged futures contracts with no expiry date. Traders deposit margin collateral — typically USDC (USDC) for Hyperliquid — to secure open positions. 

Magazine: ‘Hong Kong’s FTX’ victims win lawsuit, bankers bash stablecoins: Asia Express

Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin discussed the future of the smart contract network at the Digital Asset Summit and said layer-2 (L2) scaling networks would continue to be central to the Ethereum ecosystem.

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, Lubin said applications will require next-generation databases powered by high-throughput blockchain technologies. The Ethereum co-founder added:

“The Ethereum ecosystem is so big and so mature that it will be best for new kinds of databases — new kinds of layer 2 networks — to set up shop, as layer 2s of Ethereum. We have our own that has some great characteristics called Linea.”

“Another great application, or great layer 2, that’s emerging soon is called MegaETH,” Lubin continued.

The Ethereum co-founder ultimately concluded that newer layer-1 chains will have a tough time competing with the Ethereum network, which already features robust architecture and security guarantees.

Related: Ethereum pushes back Pectra upgrade to conduct third testnet ‘Hoodi’

Investors have doubts about layer-2 approach

According to L2Beat, there are currently over 140 unique scaling solutions for Ethereum, including 60 rollup networks.

Investors have criticized Ethereum’s layer-2 networks as parasitic elements that drain the layer-1 network of revenues while only contributing minimal economic value to the base layer.

Ethereum’s average gas fee dropped by 95% following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which dramatically lowered transaction fees for layer-2 networks.

This reduction in transaction fees caused a 99% collapse in revenue on the Ethereum base layer by September 2024.

Since that time, the price of Ether (ETH) has generally been in decline, plummeting to a recent low of approximately $1,759 on March 11 and leading many analysts to predict a further price decline in 2025.

Data from Farside Investors shows outflows from Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued for 11 consecutive days amid a broader downturn in the crypto markets.

The most significant day of outflows occurred on March 13, when investors pulled a collective $73.6 million from ETH ETFs as they dumped risk-on assets for less volatile alternatives such as cash, government securities and dollar-pegged stablecoins.

Magazine: MegaETH launch could save Ethereum… but at what cost?

Pump.fun has launched its own decentralized exchange (DEX) called PumpSwap, potentially displacing Raydium as the primary trading venue for Solana (SOL) memecoins. 

Starting on March 20, memecoins that successfully bootstrap liquidity, or “bond,” on Pump.fun will migrate directly to PumpSwap, Pump.fun said in an X post. 

Previously, bonded Pump.fun tokens migrated to Raydium, which emerged as Solana’s most popular DEX largely thanks to memecoins trading activity. 

According to Pump.fun, PumpSwap “functions similarly to Raydium V4 & Uniswap V2” and is designed “to create the most frictionless environment for trading coins.”

“[M]igrations were a major point of friction – they slow a coin’s momentum and introduce needless complexity for new users,” Pump.fun said.

“[N]ow, migrations happen instantly and for free.”

Related: Solana shorts spike amid memecoin scandals

Heightened competition

The launch comes just a few days after Raydium tipped plans to create its own memecoin launchpad — called LaunchLab — to directly compete with Pump.fun. 

Pump.fun and Raydium’s transition from partners to competitors stands to reshape Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem at a time when memecoin trading volumes are down dramatically from January highs. 

“We welcome competition because users win at the end of the day,” Alon, one of Pump.fun’s co-founders told Cointelegraph on March 20. 

Other upstart protocols — such as Daos.fun, GoFundMeme and Pumpkin — are also vying for a share of Solana’s memecoin market. 

PumpSwap plans to adopt one of rival GoFundMeme’s most popular features — revenue sharing with memecoin creators. 

Soon, “a percentage of protocol revenue will be shared with coin creators,” Pump.fun said.

“[I]f it succeeds, millions of dollars will go towards aligning creators with their communities and incentivizing higher quality launches.” 

Declining memecoin activity

On Feb. 27, Cointelegraph reported that successful memecoin launches on Pump.fun were down some 80% from January highs after a series of memecoin-related scandals cooled sentiment among retail traders. 

As a result, Pump.fun’s average daily fee revenue declined from more than $4 million in January to just over $100,000 as of mid-March, according to data from Dune Analytics,

Memecoins drove explosive growth on Solana in 2024, with the chain’s total value locked (TVL) increasing from around $1.4 billion to more than $9 billion that year, according to DefiLlama.

Raydium was among the biggest beneficiaries, with daily volumes soaring from around $245 million to more than $2 billion over the course of 2024, DefiLlama data shows.

In January, Raydium launched a leveraged perpetual futures trading platform in a bid to challenge incumbent Jupiter, another top Solana DeFi protocol.

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