US Stock Futures Dive Further

On January 30, MegaETH co-founder Namik Muduroglu announced that 53% of the total supply of the MEGA token will be unlocked when the protocol hits major milestones—rather than adhering to a time-based unlock schedule. Those milestones cover MegaETH’s total value locked (TVL), Layer 2 (L2) decentralization, protocol performance, and external achievements by the Ethereum community. The move aims to address long-running concerns about the “low circulation/high fully diluted valuation (FDV)” tokenomics model.

January 30: Per TheBlock, Griff Green—an Ethereum developer—plans to allocate a portion of unclaimed funds from the 2016 The DAO hack to launch a new Ethereum Security Fund. Originally valued at roughly $6 million, the unclaimed funds are now worth approximately $200 million, including some 70,500 ETH.

On January 30, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins announced a delay to the crypto innovation exemption the agency had previously pledged to release in January. The exemption was designed to bring regulatory clarity to tokenized securities, decentralized finance (DeFi), and related areas. Atkins added, “We need to proceed with caution,” and hinted the SEC may wait for congressional legislative developments before moving forward.

Jan. 30 — OpenAI is reportedly working toward an IPO in the fourth quarter of this year, per *The Wall Street Journal*. Earlier reports note Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon are in talks to invest up to $60 billion in the AI firm: Microsoft plans to put in less than $10 billion, Amazon more than $10 billion, and Nvidia up to $30 billion. This round’s pre-funding valuation of OpenAI could hit $730 billion.

On January 30, on-chain analyst AI Auntie (@ai_9684xtpa) reported that the "smart money" which previously netted $99.22 million from ETH range-bound trading is still accumulating positions. Over 3 hours, this whale deposited 56.05 million USDC to FalconX, then withdrew 20,000 ETH—likely for a purchase—at an average cost of $2,819.92. Since January 21, the whale has amassed 80,013 ETH at an average entry price of $2,885.75, currently holding an unrealized loss of $6.43 million.

**U.S. DOJ Takes Formal Ownership of $400M+ in Helix Dark Web Crypto Mixer Assets** Jan. 30: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it has formally secured legal ownership of over $400 million in assets tied to Helix, a dark web cryptocurrency mixing service. The assets include cryptocurrency, real estate, and cash. Jan. 21: District of Columbia federal judge Beryl A. Howell signed the final forfeiture order authorizing the seizure. Helix, run by Larry Dean Harmon, processed roughly 354,468 Bitcoin transactions between 2014 and 2017—valued at $300 million at the time. The service primarily catered to dark web drug dealers’ money laundering needs. Harmon pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in August 2021. In November 2024, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit assets.