Bitcoin milestone, Trump nominates new SEC chair, Solana ETFs, Cardano | Weekly Recap

Bitcoin claims the historic $100,000 milestone, President-elect Donald Trump picks former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler as agency chair, and more in today’s edition of the weekly recap.

Bitcoin breaches $100,000

• Trump congratulated the crypto community when Bitcoin (BTC) hit the historic $100,000 milestone on Dec. 5, soaring to a new all-time high above $103,000. At last check Sunday, the top cryptocurrency was trading at around $99,554.

• Meanwhile, defunct exchange Mt. Gox moved 24,000 BTC, triggering selloff fears.

Trump’s SEC pick and crypto czar

• On Truth Social, Trump announced his decision to nominate Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, to lead the SEC as chairman. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CLO Stuart Alderoty supported Atkins’ candidacy alongside the rest of the crypto community.

• Shortly after, Trump’s team confirmed that venture capitalist David Sacks would lead the administration’s newly created White House artificial intelligence and crypto department.

XRP finally breaches $2

• XRP (XRP), which began December at $1.95, quickly breached the $2 milestone on Dec. 1 for the first time in seven years. XRP soared to a peak of $2.9 before retracing.

• Amid the uptrend, XRP’s market cap surpassed Tether (USDT) and Solana (SOL), as the altcoin secured the third spot among the largest crypto assets. 

• As XRP cemented its position in the limelight, leading asset manager WisdomTree filed to launch an XRP ETF with the U.S. SEC, becoming the fourth firm to submit such filing. 

Solana ETFs hit roadblock

• Grayscale also filed with the SEC, seeking to launch a Solana ETF. The firm aims to convert its Grayscale Solana Trust, launched in 2021, to an ETF. But the filings reportedly face delays until after Trump takes office.

Tax regulations

• South Korea agreed to postpone a proposal to enact a 20% tax policy on crypto investments. As a result of the decision, the proposal will take effect in 2027. 

• Reports confirmed that French lawmakers are mulling including tax on unrealized crypto gains. Meanwhile, Indian authorities are investigating Binance and 16 other entities for possibly evading tax payments.
• The Czech Republic passed a law to relax its capital gains tax policy on Bitcoin held by investors for more than three years.

Cardano and WallStreetbets hacked on X

• The X accounts of both Wallstreetbets and Cardano were hacked.

• Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of X (formerly Twitter), there has been growing concern about an increase in security breaches. High-profile incidents include the compromise of the SEC’s official X account earlier this year.