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Weekly Recap: Virtuals Protocol Joins Forces with Animoca Brands, Trump Launches $TRUMP Cryptocurrency

Embark on your crypto adventure in Week 3, January 2025 (Jan 13 - Jan 19)!

January 21, 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of ChainPlay's Newsletter, where we dive into the week's most exciting and innovative crypto news.

ChainPlay.gg provides the latest updates, trends, and insights in the crypto market. Stay informed about key developments, investments, and growth across the industry.

Biggest VC Deals of Last Week

Date

Project

Category

Raised

Investor

January 13

Helio

Payment

$175M

M&A

MoonPay

January 16

Phantom

Wallet

$150M

Series C

Sequoia Capital,

Paradigm,

A16z crypto,

Variant

January 16

Komainu

Asset Management

$75M

Series B

Blockstream Capital

January 14

Sygnum

Banking

$58M

Strategic

Fulgur Ventures

Crypto Adoption News

Possible Early Action On Crypto From Trump

Bitcoin’s price has surpassed $100,000, and Trump’s presidential plans include embracing cryptocurrency. He aims to make the U.S. the "crypto capital" by creating a crypto stockpile, appointing a crypto czar, and drafting industry-friendly regulations.

Trump’s approach is expected to be more supportive than Biden’s, who was critical of crypto. He has also supported commuting the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road.

GameFi

Virtuals Protocol Joins Forces with Animoca Brands

Virtuals Protocol has partnered with Animoca Brands to boost AI gaming. The collaboration includes Agentstarter, an on-chain AI accelerator, to help develop AI-powered games.

They aim to provide funding, technical support, and incubation for developers working on AI-driven characters, gamers, and avatars that can rival human players.

The Machines Arena Launches on Steam

The Machines Arena, an Ethereum-based game, launched on Steam on January 14, 2025. However, due to platform restrictions, it will not include blockchain features on Steam.

PC players (via the Epic Games Store) and Android users can still earn TMA tokens and trade NFT skins on Ronin. These features, however, will not be available in the Steam version.

The game is also set to launch on PlayStation 5 later in 2025. Ongoing talks with Sony are exploring the possibility of integrating blockchain elements, but nothing has been confirmed yet due to Sony’s strict crypto policies.

Meme Coins

Trump Launches $TRUMP Cryptocurrency, Soaring to $72 Billion in Two Days

On January 19, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump introduced his own meme cryptocurrency, $TRUMP, which surged to a market value of over $72 billion within two days, potentially making him one of the wealthiest individuals globally.

The coin, branded as the "only official Trump meme," underscores his expanding influence in the crypto space. Meanwhile, his wife, Melania, debuted the $MELANIA coin, which quickly gained more than $5 billion in value.

The launch of $TRUMP sparks debate about the intersection of Trump’s political role and his personal wealth, with his embrace of cryptocurrency highlighting his ongoing push to prioritize it nationally.

Solana reached an all-time high of nearly $293

The blockchain supporting the Trump meme coin achieved notable success, with Solana reaching an all-time high near $293.

Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols processed $19.47 billion in volume, a slight increase from $19.37 billion the previous day. This marks a significant rise from the previous daily record of $7.5 billion set in November last year.

Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news and announcements!

See you same place same time next week!

❤❤❤

ChainPlay team