GeckoPulse: Welcome to $NYC

Political Rug Pull

After ending his terms as the Mayor of New York City, politician Eric Adams has now launched his own memecoin.

Modeled as a memecoin centered on New York City, Adams launched the aptly named NYC token earlier today, claiming that it will help to spark innovation in the city.

In a recent interview with FOX Business, Adams also stated that revenue earned from the token will be redistributed to non-profit organizations to raise awareness on anti-Americanism and antisemitism.

The funds will also be used to provide scholarships for students within New York City.

Shortly after deployment, the NYC token surged to a peak of $0.70, reaching a market cap of $220M.

However, within the next hour, the token price had plunged under $0.10, falling to a market cap of approximately $27M.

Some users claimed that the project had committed a classic rug pull, where wallets linked to the token’s deployer, potentially owned by Eric Adams himself, have removed over $3.4M from the liquidity pool.

As of the time of writing, NYC currently trades at $0.13, with a market cap of $39M, as Adams has yet to clarify on the situation.

Liberty Loans Goes Live

The Trump-linked DeFi project World Liberty Financial has deployed its own set of lending markets, built on top of the Dolomite platform.

Known as World Liberty Markets, the feature allows users to deposit and borrow BTC, ETH, stablecoins and other assets such as USD1 and the native WLFI token.

According to World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman, new collateral assets will be gradually supported in time, including tokenized equities and money market funds.

However, WLFI holders will have the power to vote on which markets to add and incentive programs to drive further usage of the platform.

Besides that, the protocol has also launched its points program for USD1 lenders.

Privacy Takes Priority

Bitcoin is once again on the rise as new macroeconomic risks in the US have presented themselves.

The current chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell stated in a video earlier today that the institution has been served with subpoenas by the Department of Justice.

Powell elaborated that he had been threatened with criminal charges with relation to his congressional testimony earlier in June last year, but will not 'bow down to intimidation'.

Since then, the price of Bitcoin has steadily inched higher by 0.7% from $91,130 to a peak of $92,300 earlier today, but has retraced to $90,700 as of the time of writing.

However, safe haven assets such as gold and silver saw significant price increases, with the former reaching a new all-time high of $4,600 per ounce.

The broader crypto market has also reacted accordingly, led by privacy coins such as XMR and ZEC.

ZEC has managed to regain its footing following the exodus of developers from the Electric Coin Company, climbing by 9.0% to $410.

On the other hand, XMR has surged by 19.6% from $479 to $574, having reached anew all-time high of $597 earlier today.

But Not in Dubai

However, the DFSA, Dubai's financial regulator, has made the decision to ban privacy coins due to risks associated with money laundering and compliance.

This decision was part of several new rules enacted within the DFSA's jurisdiction, which include shifting token approvals to companies and enforcing tighter criteria for stablecoins.

The ban itself will apply to trading, promotion, and derivatives of privacy tokens within Dubai's International Financial Centre (DIFC).
 

Additionally, firms regulated under the DFSA will also be prohibited from using crypto mixers and tumblers to anonymize transactions.

In Other News

The City of Wrench Attacks. Another crypto “wrench attack” has been recorded in France. This time, a crypto executive and his family were beaten and bound during a Friday home invasion in Verneuil-sur-Seine. Another attack was also recorded in another town in France earlier last week, suggesting a trend of violent crypto crimes in France.

$1B Stablecoins Linked to Iran. According to a report by TRM Labs, two UK-registered companies have been found to have transferred a total of $619M in funds to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2024, and another $410M in 2025. The two firms Zedcex and Zedxion, are currently still active.

It’s Time to Cash Out. An anonymous Satoshi-era Bitcoin miner was found to have just transferred $180M in BTC to Coinbase, likely intending to liquidate his holdings after 15 years of being dormant.

KrakAcquisition Enters the Stage. Kraken crypto exchange is reportedly backing a new SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) under the ticker KRAQU. KRAQU will essentially be handed a blank check to acquire another unspecified firm using up to $250M in raised funds.

Bakkt Banks on Stablecoins. Blockchain infrastructure company Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) announced that it was acquiring stablecoin infrastructure provider Distributed Technologies Research Ltd. The news saw BKKT rallying over 20% on Monday.

ZKsync Focuses on RWA. ETH L2 ZKsync outlined real world assets (RWAs) in their 2026 roadmap. ZKsync is currently pivoting away from DeFi, and towards growing institutional adoption through privacy features and now, RWA features.

View Your Charts on X. Crypto users will soon be able to use “Smart Cashtags”, viewing the price charts of their favorite stocks or crypto assets when tagging the ticker symbol ($BTC, etc.) in their posts. The rollout is expected next month.

Tether Freezes $182M USDT. USDT issuer has frozen $182M worth of USDT across five Tron addresses on Sunday. A Tether spokesperson said that the freeze was in response to an investigation by law enforcement authorities. No other details were given.

Lifting the Ban on Corporate Crypto Investments. South Korea's Financial Services Commission is currently in discussion to set a 5% cap on corporate investments into cryptocurrencies. Despite this proposed restriction, the nation’s move is considered positive over their previous outright ban of corporate investments into crypto.

Pump.fun Reconsiders Structure of Creator Fees. Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen said that he is overhauling his creator fee system and that the current system is skewed towards low-risk token creation instead of high-risk token trading. This suggests a greater incentive for PumpSwap traders in his new system.

Not Endorsing Spin-offs. Crypto influencer The White Whale, whose memecoin grew greatly, inspiring a slew of spin-off memecoins, announced that he would not be supporting these “spin-offs” due to finite liquidity. He stressed that these spin-offs were thriving on “borrowed attention”, implying a short lifespan for these tokens.