Bitcoin (BTC) zoomed to a record level above $109,000 during the Asian trading hours on Monday ahead of Republican Donald Trump’s scheduled inauguration later in the day. The largest cryptocurrency touched $109,333 on Binance.
Trump mentioned the asset’s record performance in a Sunday speech alongside gains in the broader U.S. stock market.

“Since the election, the stock market has surged and small business optimism has soared a record 41 points to a 39-year high. Bitcoin has shattered one record high after another,” Trump said.
BTC reversed losses from earlier in the day when it fell to nearly $100,000 from a high over $102,000 on Sunday as first lady Melania Trump issued a memecoin, drawing liquidity away from major assets.
Trump has been vocal about his support for cryptocurrencies during his campaign. Promises like making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and creating a “strategic national bitcoin reserve” have fueled investor optimism.
“Bitcoin reached $108K while other cryptocurrencies have rapidly pumped on the eve of the US presidential inauguration, with hopes that new policies and regulators will send the price of BTC much further this year as the US economy continues to show strength in the long term,” Ben El-Baz, Managing Director of HashKey Global, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

“The forward momentum has been further accelerated by the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins which have attracted more retail users, and hopes that Trump will prioritize and reaffirm his commitment to the crypto industry.”
“Designating crypto as a national priority and launching TRUMP coin over the past few days have been strong, positive signals. As the main bellwether for the industry, Bitcoin’s surge was expected and is likely to continue through the week,” Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, said in a Telegram message.
Year-end bitcoin targets range from $185,000 to as high as $250,000, as CoinDesk previously reported.
Meanwhile, bitcoin dominance has started to trend higher and is now approaching 60%, the highest level since Dec. 20. The spread between the two largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether (ETH), continues to widen, with a $1.75 trillion market cap differential — the largest difference ever recorded.

BTC-ETH Market Cap : (TradingView)

Bitcoin (BTC) zoomed to a record level above $109,000 during the Asian trading hours on Monday ahead of Republican Donald Trump's scheduled …

The cryptocurrency market has experienced significant volatility in the past 24 hours, with liquidations surpassing $1 billion. Bitcoin briefly fell below $100,000, retreating from its near all-time high. According to data from CoinGlass, a total of $1.18 billion was...

Melania trump’s memecoin, MEKANIA debuted on Jan. 19, reaching a $1.5 billion market cap in just 9 hours.

Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions may soon hit their limits in efficiently scaling the mainnet, warns Gautham Santhosh, co-founder of Polynomial.fi.
Layer 2 solutions are protocols or networks built on top of a layer-1 networks to improve its scalability and reduce transaction costs by processing transactions off-chain and then periodically settling the results on the main chain. More and more users have embraced these protocols for faster and more affordable transactions late last year.

That’s evident from the spike in the number of blobs or binary large objects posted by hundreds of L2s to Ethereum. Since November, the daily tally has averaged a record 21,000, according to pseudonymous data analyst Hildobby’s Dune Analytics dashboard.
Here is the concerning part. Just two Layer 2s – Coinbase’s BASE and World Chain – account for 55% of the daily blog activity. So, a sustained demand for Layer 2s could quickly deplete available capacity.
“Ethereum L2s are about to hit a brick wall. 55% of all blob space is already consumed by just 2 chains. And at current growth rates, we’re only months away from everything breaking,” Santhosh said on X.

Ethereum L2s: Blobs posted since last year’s Dencun upgrade. (Hildobby’s Dune Analytics dashboard)
Blobs are like regular transactions with an extra piece of transaction data attached. However, unlike traditional transactions, blob-carrying transactions do not permanently occupy the mainnet space and are only available for 18 days. Layer 2 protocols use blobs to bundle transactions, process them off-chain, and post them to the main chain for verification.

The blob limit per block is six, with a target of three. When the target is reached, a base fee is charged to regulate demand from L2s.
Since November, the demand for blobs has been so high that the target of three has consistently been met. In other words, scores of L2s are competing for the per-block target, driving base fees higher.
“It’s like having a highway with only 3 lanes for 50 growing cities,” Santhosh said.

Blob base submission fee (Hildobby’s Dune Analytics dashboard)
The chart shows the base submission fee has been markedly higher since November compared to preceding months, occasionally topping the $50 mark.
These typically spike during market hours, airdrops and when a new layer 2 solution goes live, leading to higher user costs. “This is hitting everyone. DEXs seeing higher trade costs, perp protocols facing base fee spikes, users paying more for basic transactions,” Santosh explained. “At @polynomialFi, our base fees are up 300% in recent months.”
According to pseudonymous Base builder Jesse.base.eth, the spike in the blob base fee is hampering L2 growth.
“You can see this in the cyclical price spikes driven by daily demand cycles. We need more blobs ASAP to help all L2s continue scaling and ensure @ethereum is center of onchain,” Jesse said on X.
Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, slated for March 2025, is expected to raise the blob limit per block to nine, with a target of 6. But, according to Santhosh, doubling capacity “only buys us months, not years.”

Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions may soon hit their limits in efficiently scaling the mainnet, warns Gautham Santhosh, co-founder of Polynomial.fi.

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Asia-Pacific markets trade higher on Monday following a positive conversation between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping ahead of the US President-elect’s inauguration