What’s Deutsche Bank cooking on Ethereum

Plus: Bitcoin cap drama – what did BlackRock just say?

GM. Welcome to the Daily Squeeze, where we’re peeling back crypto news like it’s a stubborn orange – messy but worth it.

🚀 Deutsche Bank is building a Layer-2 blockchain on Ethereum.

🍋 News drops: debates about Bitcoin’s supply cap, a partnership between Ethena Labs and World Liberty Financial + more

🍍 Market flavor today

As always, the market feels like an unsupervised group chat with no mods in sight 🤪

Yesterday, the US Fed trimmed rates by that expected 25bps… but they also hinted at slowing the pace next year due to inflation.

In that instant, anything with risky vibes got a markdown, and our old friend Bitcoin was no exception – the price dipped near $99K before bouncing back above $100K. The Fear and Greed Index, once glowing with extreme vibes, settled a bit at 75, though still in “Greed” territory.

Meanwhile, analysts are pointing to massive sell-pressure from long-term holders, who offloaded 40K BTC yesterday. The good news is that the market is slurping it up – absorbed nearly 1M BTC without missing a beat. Meaning: the Bitcoin train doesn’t look like slowing down.

Bitfinex analysts are laying down their forecast: 2025 corrections? Likely mild. Institutional players keep pumping in capital – just this week, ETFs saw $1.4B in inflows. They’re calling for a minimum of $145K by mid-2025, with a bold stretch goal of BTC hitting $200K if the stars align.

In the end, maybe that’s the charm – no rules, no mods, just the beautiful mess we all signed up for 🤷

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Not to flex, but these memecoins outperformed your 9-to-5:

	Name
	Unicorn Fart Dust UFD		▲ 585%
	ANDY70B ANDY70B		▲ 432%
	Frodo the virtual samurai FROG		▲ 132%
	dog with apple in mouth APPLE		▲ 40%

Data as of 08:20 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

Back in the day (🥲), life was all about negotiation. Wanna go out? Be back by 10 PM. Want some chocolate? Eat your veggies first. Basically, you had to compromise to keep everyone happy.

Well, apparently, Deutsche Bank – Germany’s banking giant – was taking notes. With its Project Dama 2, it’s trying to find that same give a little, take a little balance: getting the freedom of decentralized networks while keeping regulators happy.

The bank’s building its own Ethereum L2 blockchain using ZKsync tech, set to (hopefully) launch in 2025.

This blockchain is designed to use trusted validators, which are basically pre-approved entities allowed to confirm transactions on the network. Unlike other public blockchains, where anyone can join and validate, this setup ensures that only reliable participants are involved.

Plus, regulators will have special oversight, with tools like super admin rights to monitor and audit transactions if needed.

And why does any of it matter? If Deutsche Bank’s experiment works, it could open the doors for more financial bigshots to build on Ethereum. Translation: more adoption, more use cases, and a stronger Ethereum ecosystem.

So yeah, this is a win-win… just like those childhood negotiations 😏

🍋 News drops

🗣 A BlackRock video brought back the old debate about Bitcoin’s 21M cap. They said it’s coded in but added a disclaimer that it’s not 100% guaranteed – which critics call misinformation.

⛓ Dylan Meissner, ex-VP at Delphi Digital, got 48 months in prison for stealing $4.5M from the company. It started with a loan of 50 ETH in early 2022 to cover his personal investment losses – but instead of repaying, he helped himself to millions more over the following months.

🤝 Ethena Labs teamed up with the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial. The plan? Boost liquidity and make stablecoins more useful, starting with Ethena’s synthetic dollar, sUSDe, as the first collateral on their platform.

🚀 Sonic Labs launched their Sonic mainnet – an EVM-compatible L1 blockchain. With 10K TPS, lightning-fast finality, and easy Ethereum access, it gives devs the tools to build next-gen apps.

☎️ You can now call 1-800-CHATGPT to chat with OpenAI’s bot. The first 15 minutes each month are on the house.

⚖️ A federal judge ruled in favor of Coinbase, refusing to stop the delisting of Wrapped Bitcoin. She said that BiT Global’s lawyers failed to prove any immediate or serious harm.