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Good Morning

The SEC’s move to rescind Rules 611 and 610(e) is less a crypto-specific concession and more a foundational market structure reform, but the downstream effect is the same: AMM-based trading of tokenized US equities goes from structurally illegal to legally viable for the first time.

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In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: SEC Eyes NMS Rollback in Tokenized Stock Unlock 👀

• Founders Highlight: Yuval Rooz of Digital Asset 👨

• Deal Flows: a16z Leads $355M Raise for Digital Asset 💰️

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

WHAT MATTERS

SEC Eyes NMS Rollback in Tokenized Stock Unlock

State of play: The SEC’s proposal to rescind Rules 611 and 610(e) of Regulation NMS could remove the biggest structural barrier preventing DeFi AMMs from legally trading tokenized US equities.

• Rule 611’s trade-through prohibition made AMM-based tokenized stock trading structurally illegal, as AMMs execute against bonding curves and cannot comply with intermarket routing requirements.

• Rule 610(e) similarly blocked AMMs, whose continuous price discovery routinely crosses the National Best Bid and Offer.

• Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn framed the move as the SEC executing its “Project Crypto playbook,” clearing the hardest market structure obstacle before addressing venue registration via an innovation exemption.

• TD Cowen expects finalization in Q1 2027, with exemptive relief for tokenization pilots anticipated before then.

• Tokenized US equities still face additional hurdles including ATS registration and clearance rules not designed for decentralized trading.

Why it matters: Rescinding Rule 611 removes the one barrier that made onchain equity trading structurally impossible, not just legally ambiguous, opening AMM-based tokenized stock markets for the first time.

Our take: This is less a crypto concession and more a broad market structure reform that crypto benefits from most. Watch the innovation exemption, not the finalization timeline.

For builders and investors: AMM pools for tokenized US equities become legally viable, but ATS registration and settlement infrastructure remain unsolved.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Yuval Rooz of Digital Asset

Intro: Yuval Rooz is the Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset, the creator of the Canton Network.

Previous background: Yuval is a quant trading veteran turned venture investor, with a career spanning high-frequency market making, algorithmic equity trading, and early-stage company building across fintech and deep tech.

• Nearly 6 years at DRW as ETF market maker, Senior Algorithmic Trader (equity desk lead), and venture investor

• ~1 year at Citadel researching risk models for long-short equity portfolios

• Founded and exited Hesta Home, a Chicago-based startup (2014-2017)

The big idea: Yuval’s and Canton’s goal is to to accelerate the delivery of institutional-grade tokenization solutions.

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INSIGHTS

Citigroup to Offer Tokenized Private Company Shares

Citigroup is launching a blockchain platform for trading tokenized shares of private companies, initially for foreign investors only, as Wall Street races to meet institutional demand for pre-IPO exposure to names like SpaceX and Anthropic.

• The platform builds on Citi’s multi-year tokenization push, including its 2023 Token Services pilot and recent entry into JPMorgan’s tokenized deposit network.

• Delayed IPOs have created demand for private equity access that traditional markets can’t easily serve, providing the commercial rationale.

• Republic and Robinhood have made similar moves, though OpenAI publicly pushed back on Robinhood’s tokenization, flagging the legal complexity still surrounding private equity tokens.

DEAL FLOWS

a16z Leads $355M Raise for Digital Asset

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $400M+ in deals 💼

Digital Asset closed a $355M round led by a16z crypto, with TradFi and DeFi institutions taking equity stakes as Canton solidifies its position as the go-to institutional blockchain infrastructure.

• Backers include Apollo, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, S&P Global, and Tradeweb, many of whom are also prospective Canton users.

• Canton claims $6T in tokenized assets issued, with JPMorgan, DTCC, and Visa already on the network.

• CEO Yuval Rooz said the firm is already profitable, with the raise earmarked for M&A and accelerating partner onchain deployments.

Deal flows in the past week:

• OneDosh, $4M Pre-Seed Round

• MNX, $6.4M Pre-Seed Round

• TVL Capital, $5M Seed Round

• EDGE Markets, $29.2M Series A Round

• NEURA Robotics, $1.4B Series C Round

• Ai Pay With Crypto, $10M Strategic Round

• Morpho, $175M Strategic Round

• Ethena, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Canton Network, $355M Unknown Round

• TSFC, Undisclosed $ Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• Citigroup to offer tokenized shares of private companies.

• South Korean police book Bithumb CEO as bribery suspect.

• a16z crypto leads $355M raise for Canton developer Digital Asset.

• Japan’s parliament advances bill to classify crypto as financial instruments.

• Community bank group launches new ad targeting stablecoin reward language.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Jason Rosenthall’s read on The Money Flow Is the Moat.

• Eli’s read on The Revival of Proof-of-Useful Work (PoUW).

• Diego’s read on Tokenization: The Next Financial Revolution.

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Good Morning.

GENIUS Act implementation is exposing the first real fault line between TradFi compliance logic and DeFi infrastructure. If Treasury doesn’t narrow secondary market liability, US-regulated stablecoins get structurally excluded from permissionless chains, and offshore alternatives fill the void.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: DeFi Groups Push Back on GENIUS AML Rules 👀

• Case Study: Humanity Protocol Drained $32M, Token Crashes 🔎

• Governance & Features: Aave Proposes New Risk Framework Post-Kelp 👻

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WHAT MATTERS

DeFi Groups Push Back on GENIUS AML Rules

State of play: Paradigm and Hyperliquid Policy Center filed a joint letter urging the US Treasury to narrow its proposed GENIUS Act AML rule, warning that extending issuer liability to secondary market activity would push regulated stablecoins out of DeFi entirely.

• FinCEN and OFAC’s April proposal would treat stablecoin issuers like financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, including obligations for secondary market transactions they cannot meaningfully monitor.

• HPC and Paradigm support primary market compliance requirements but argue OFAC’s smart contract liability extension imposes obligations issuers structurally cannot meet.

• If left unchanged, the rule would incentivize issuers to deploy only on permissioned chains, ceding DeFi market share to unregulated offshore alternatives.

Why it matters: GENIUS Act implementation is now the real fight. Treasury’s secondary market liability definition will determine whether US-regulated stablecoins stay in permissionless DeFi or get pushed out.

Our take: Strict liability for transactions issuers can’t control is a DeFi exit ramp. The argument is sound, but the outcome depends on how receptive Treasury is.

For builders and investors: Watch the final rule’s smart contract language. It’s the key variable for whether compliant stablecoins remain viable in permissionless deployments.

CASE STUDY

Humanity Protocol Drained $32M, Token Crashes

Wallets linked to Humanity Protocol were exploited for over $32M, with the team attributing the breach to a private key compromise, while onchain sleuths question whether the incident was staged.

• 17 wallets holding H tokens were drained, with $23.7M already swapped for ETH and $7.9M remaining in H tokens.

• Founder Terence Kwok blamed a private key compromise by a Humanity Foundation member, but ZachXBT suspects the team’s story is cover for a market maker exit.

• The hacker minted 100M H tokens and dumped them for BNB, sending the H token down 89% in 24 hours.

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INSIGHTS

Backpack Adds Ex-SEC Chair, Eyes US Perps

State of play: Backpack US appointed former SEC Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar to its board as the exchange pushes to expand regulated perps trading in the US following the CFTC’s approval of bitcoin perpetual futures.

• Piwowar served as SEC commissioner from 2013 to 2018 and briefly as acting chairman in 2017, where he rejected the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF application.

• The appointment follows Backpack’s launch of a stock trading platform blending traditional and tokenized equities, and signals a broader US regulatory expansion push.

• Backpack President Mark Wetjen, himself a former CFTC acting chairman, called the CFTC’s bitcoin perps approval a defining moment for bringing offshore products to regulated US exchanges.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Aave Proposes New Risk Framework Post-Kelp

Aave founder Stani Kulechov introduced a new risk framework developed with LlamaRisk following the $292M KelpDAO rsETH bridge exploit in April, which spread contagion directly into Aave V3.

• The April exploit saw 116,500 rsETH tokens stolen via a LayerZero bridge attack, with the attacker depositing proceeds into Aave V3 as collateral to borrow WETH and threaten bad debt.

• The proposed framework covers asset risk, bridging risk, chain risk, and automated monitoring across Aave V3, V4, and Aave Horizon.

• Assets failing to meet the new standard will be offboarded in the coming weeks once the proposal clears governance.

Other notable feature updates:

• Tangent raises borrow caps 50%.

• Felix HIP-3 dex begins shutdown.

• Makina season 3 rewards go live.

• Circle launches bitcoin-backed cirbtc.

• Coinbase activates aqav2 on hyperliquid.

• Yield Basis lowers vault collateral requirement.

QUICK BITES

• US Bitcoin ETFs log further outflows.

• Kalshi requires traders to disclose employers.

• Backpack US appoints former SEC Acting Chairman.

• Japan’s SBI Shinsei Bank plans crypto rewards program.

• New Aave risk framework proposed following KelpDAO exploit.

• EU proposes expanded sanctions on Russia-linked crypto platforms.

• GSR receives FINRA approval to complete broker-dealer acquisition.

• Hyperliquid advocate and Paradigm urge US to revise proposed AML.

• Japan’s three megabanks to debut live stablecoin transactions by March 2027.

• House crypto tax hearing reveals divide over urgency in advancing legislation.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Gaspardlezin’s read on Privacy stablecoins.

• Bmoney’s read on The Global Stablecoin Card Map.

• HPC’s read on Joint Comment on Treasury’s GENIUS Act Proposed Rule.

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Good Morning,

Strategy is signaling another bitcoin purchase this week at roughly $61,900, doubling down on a position already $11.7B underwater while reserves sit at $900M following last month’s convertible note repurchase.

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In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Saylor Signals Fresh Bitcoin Buy at $11.7B Loss 👀

• Product of the Week: Morgan Stanley Lets Clients Convert Crypto to ETF 🔎

• Charts: Zcash Drops 50%, Crypto Card Spend Crosses $9B Cumulative 📊

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

WHAT MATTERS

Saylor Signals Fresh Bitcoin Buy at $11.7B Loss

State of play: Michael Saylor posted his customary “add more dots” BTC acquisition chart on Sunday, signaling a potential purchase this week while the firm sits $11.7B underwater on its 843,706 BTC position at an average cost of $75,699.

• A confirmed buy this week would come roughly 20% below the $77,135 average at which Strategy sold 32 BTC on June 1, its first sale since 2022.

• Strategy’s USD reserve stood at $900M as of May 31, down from $2B after repurchasing $1.5B in convertible notes, limiting the scale of any potential buy.

• The signal lands as bitcoin trades near $61,900 after 13 consecutive sessions of ETF net outflows, with $325.7M in redemptions resuming on June 5.

• The post also precedes Strategy’s June 8 annual meeting, where voting closes on a proposal to shift STRC dividend payments from monthly to twice monthly.

Why it matters: Saylor buying at $61K while $11.7B underwater shifts the read from momentum to conviction, and the market will decide whether that’s discipline or denial.

Our take: The June 1 sale cracked the “never sell” narrative. A buy this week is reputation management as much as portfolio construction, and $900M in reserves caps how aggressive they can get.

For builders and investors: Strategy’s constraint is capital access, not conviction. ATM issuance pace and preferred equity demand are the real signals to watch.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Morgan Stanley Lets Clients Convert Crypto to ETF Shares

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has partnered with Galaxy Digital to let eligible clients lend bitcoin and other crypto assets in exchange for in-kind spot crypto ETP shares, including the recently launched Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust.

• The arrangement is structured as a referral partnership between Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Galaxy Digital.

• The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust was the first crypto ETF to record zero net redemptions in its first month of trading.

• The in-kind conversion structure lets clients gain regulated ETF exposure without a taxable sale event, a meaningful structural advantage over cash redemption alternatives.

Other cool products:

• Ondo Perps launches june 9.

• Sky launches 5.35% fixed yield.

• Jupiter launches forecast markets.

• Plume and EtherFi launch rwa vault.

• KPK launched a fixed-rate ETH lending on Euler.

• Superluminal launches auction-based perps dex.

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CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Zcash Drops 50% After Critical Bug Disclosure

State of play: Zcash shed over 50% to $310 after a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in its Orchard zero-knowledge proof circuit was disclosed, triggering $116M in liquidations, with the flaw undetected since May 2022.

• The bug, found by researcher Taylor Hornby using an AI auditing framework powered by Claude Opus 4.8, would have allowed unlimited undetectable ZEC minting within the Orchard pool.

• The flaw was patched via soft fork within days, but Zcash’s privacy architecture makes it impossible to verify whether the exploit was used before remediation.

• Arthur Hayes sold his entire ZEC position, citing the inability to formally prove no minting occurred as incompatible with Zcash’s privacy narrative.

• Shielded Labs is proposing a new shielded pool with turnstile accounting to verify supply integrity, pending community governance approval.

Our Take: The patch was fast, but it can never be proven the exploit wasn’t used. For a protocol whose value proposition is cryptographic certainty, that’s a structural ceiling, not a footnote.

Crypto Card Spend Crosses $9B Cumulative

State of play: Stablecoin neobank card programs have crossed $9B in cumulative spend and top-ups as of March 2026, with RedotPay alone accounting for roughly 65% of all-time volume, according to Paymentscan data.

• Growth is heavily back-weighted, with the majority of volume concentrated in the last 12 months, reflecting accelerating consumer adoption of crypto-linked cards.

• KAST ranks second with meaningful but distant share, followed by EtherFi, Plasma One, and a long tail of 16 other programs.

• RedotPay’s dominance signals winner-take-most dynamics in crypto card infrastructure, with no clear second-place challenger in sight.

Our take: $9B cumulative is a rounding error against Visa’s $13T annual volume, and RedotPay’s dominance will face its real test once Mastercard’s stablecoin rails and crypto-overlay neobanks arrive in force.

QUICK BITES

• Michael Saylor hints at fresh bitcoin buy.

• Zcash selloff extends past 50% amid bug disclosure.

• Morgan Stanley lets clients swap crypto for ETF Shares.

• Galaxy drops CLARITY Act odds to 60% as time is running out.

• Arthur Hayes dumps WLD days after Maelstrom’s AI IPO pitch.

• Crypto tax proposals weighed ahead of Tuesday House hearing.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Bmoney’s read on Neobank 101.

• Stacy’s read on Morpho’s Whitepaper.

• DWF’s read on The Pre-IPO Gold Rush.

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Good Morning

Mastercard is embedding stablecoin settlement directly into its global payments network, and the inclusion list tells you everything about which tokens are winning: USDC, RLUSD, PYUSD are in.

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In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Mastercard Adds Stablecoin Settlement Support 👀

• Founders Highlight: Andrew Kang of RoboStrategy 👨

• Deal Flows: SignalPlus Raises $50M at $500M Valuation 💰️

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WHAT MATTERS

Mastercard Adds Stablecoin Settlement Support

State of play: Mastercard is opening its global payments network to stablecoin-based card settlement with USDC, PYUSD, RLUSD, and others across 8 blockchains, with ARQ, Cross River, and Nuvei among the first institutions going live in the US and Latin America.

• The expansion enables intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement, allowing transactions to process outside standard banking schedules.

• Supported stablecoins include Circle’s USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD and USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD, USDG, and SoFiUSD, with further rollout planned through 2026.

• The move follows Mastercard’s NY BitLicense in May and its $1.8B deal to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK in March.

• Visa is running parallel stablecoin settlement pilots across multiple blockchains, and MoneyGram recently launched MGUSD on Stellar.

• Total stablecoin supply is approaching $300B, with USDT at $188B and USDC at $76B.

Why it matters: Mastercard embedding stablecoin settlement across eight blockchains moves crypto rails from pilot to default infrastructure inside legacy payments.

Our take: The BVNK acquisition, BitLicense, and this rollout are a coordinated land-grab for stablecoin infrastructure while competitors are still experimenting.

For builders and investors: The inclusion list (USDC, RLUSD, PYUSD) signals which stablecoins are winning the institutional race. Anything not on it has a distribution problem.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Andrew Kang of RoboStrategy

Intro: Andrew Kang is the Chief Executive Officer of RoboStrategy, the first dedicated investment company providing public market investors with direct access to leading private and public companies in robotics.

Previous background: Previously, Andrew was the Founding Partner of Mechanism Capital, the family office he launched in 2020 to invest in frontier technologies.

• Through Mechanism, Andrew was an early major investor in the robotics sector, with substantial investments in companies such as Figure AI and Apptronik.

The big idea: Andrew through RoboStrategy aims to give public market investors venture-style access to the robotics and embodied AI boom, wrapped in a liquid, transparent structure.

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INSIGHTS

Hyperliquid Records Highest Perps Market Share

Hyperliquid hit a record 6.63% share of global perps volume in May, with HIP-3 posting $62B in monthly volume, even as Binance enters tokenized equity perps with $280M in its first five days.

• HIP-3’s lead remains wide, but the HYPE bull case now hinges on tokenized equity flow rather than crypto market structure.

• Pure crypto volumes are down significantly year over year, in line with broader exchange trends.

• Binance’s equity perps plus spot tokenized shares via Nest Trading and Alpaca pose a real compression risk given its user base.

• Post-SEC innovation exemption, the key question is whether Trade.xyz holds its 90%+ builder share as new entrants spin up.

DEAL FLOWS

SignalPlus Raises $50M at $500M Valuation

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $400M+ in deals 💼

SignalPlus closed a $50M Series B1 led by HashKey Capital at a $500M valuation, with Goldman Sachs advising, as the institutional crypto derivatives infrastructure provider pushes into multi-asset trading and agentic AI tooling.

• The platform hit $160B in volume in Q4 2025, including $70B in Block-RFQ via Deribit, with terminal volumes growing at 74% quarterly CAGR since 2023.

• Clients include Cumberland, FalconX, and Galaxy Digital, positioning SignalPlus as the dominant options infrastructure layer for top-tier market makers and CEXs.

• Proceeds will fund geographic expansion, structured commodity products, and a platform upgrade integrating agentic AI via its proprietary QuantLab engine.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Xeffy, $20M Angel & Private Round

• Hypernova, $3M Pre-Seed Round

• Speed Labs, $6.5M Seed Round

• WasabiCard, $10M Pre-Series A Round

• AIVIVE, $8M Series A & B Round

• SignalPlus, $50M Series B Round

• Pheasant Network, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Coinone, $106M Unknown Round

• Dunamu, $204M Unknown Round

• Axis, Undisclosed $ Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• Coinbase launches pre-IPO perpetual futures.

• Crypto VC deal count slumps to five-year low.

• Arthur Hayes sells entire HYPE and NEAR positions.

• Coinbase, SpaceX, Meta join DOJ anti-scam operation.

• HYPE overtakes SOL in price as SOL falls to lowest levels since 2023.

• Immunefi says DeFi is ‘getting safer’ as exploit losses fall 74% from 2022 peak.

• Hyperliquid hits record share of perps market as it tops $62B monthly volume.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Arrakis’s read on where crypto price discovery happens.

• Diego’s read on Tokenization: The Next Financial Revolution.

• a16z’s read on Genius Act principles for state implementation.

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Good Morning.

MoneyGram launched MGUSD on Stellar, graduating from USDC-powered transfers to proprietary stablecoin issuance and joining Western Union, PayPal, and Visa in a broader race among legacy payments networks to capture settlement margin they previously ceded to third-party issuers.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: MoneyGram Launches Native MGUSD Stablecoin 👀

• Case Study: Vitalik Proposes Liquidation-Free Synthetic Assets 🔎

• Governance & Features: Coinbase Backs Ethena With Open Market ENA Buy 👌

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WHAT MATTERS

MoneyGram Launches Native MGUSD Stablecoin

State of play: MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a USD-pegged stablecoin on Stellar, targeting its 60M+ customers across nearly 500,000 retail locations and joining Western Union, PayPal, and Visa in building proprietary stablecoin rails.

• Bridge (Stripe) serves as regulated issuer under the GENIUS Act, with M0 handling minting and burning and Fireblocks providing custody and wallet distribution.

• MGUSD launches initially in the US, distributed through customer wallets embedded in the MoneyGram app, with global scaling planned.

• The launch graduates MoneyGram from USDC-powered transfers to its own issuance, deepening a 5-year partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation.

• Recent buildout includes Fireblocks for settlements in December, a Tempo remittance validator role last month, and crypto-to-cash withdrawals for Kraken users in May.

• Western Union launched USDPT on Solana, while PayPal and Visa have each embedded stablecoin infrastructure into their cross-border settlement stacks.

Why it matters: Legacy payments networks capturing proprietary stablecoin rails means direct margin on settlement flows previously ceded to Circle and others.

Our take: The GENIUS Act framing is doing real work here, but the moat depends entirely on whether 60M customers use the app wallet rather than cashing out immediately.

For builders and investors: Stellar continues to quietly win remittance-grade deployments, and M0’s minting infrastructure is emerging as a recurring layer in enterprise stablecoin stacks.

CASE STUDY

Vitalik Proposes Liquidation-Free Synthetic Assets

Vitalik Buterin proposed replacing debt and forced liquidations in synthetic asset design with options as the base primitive, eliminating oracle dependence and insolvency risk from undercollateralized positions.

• The system splits one ETH into a protected and leveraged position tied to a strike price, with an oracle resolving distribution at maturity rather than in real time.

• Because the two positions always sum to one ETH, the design eliminates insolvency risk and replaces binary liquidations with a quadratic drift in index exposure.

• The architecture runs on “slow oracles” used by prediction markets, allowing extended dispute windows and human recourse against manipulation.

• The key open question is whether rebalancing can be made slippage-resistant enough to compete, with Buterin suggesting one-sided market making as a path forward.

• The proposal extends a February thesis on replacing fiat-pegged stablecoins, introducing the onchain mechanics that could underpin that vision.

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INSIGHTS

Galaxy Launches Institutional Prediction Market Desk

State of play: Galaxy Digital launched an OTC prediction market trading desk for hedge funds and family offices, executing a $10M inaugural trade with Arca on a Clarity Act passage contract on Kalshi.

• The desk acts as principal counterparty for bilateral position-building at institutional scale, covering non-sports contracts on Kalshi and Polymarket.

• Galaxy can pair prediction market positions with hedges in equities and commodities, letting clients build unified risk strategies around a single event.

• Arca CIO Jeff Dorman cited insufficient retail liquidity for a fund of its size as the driver for seeking institutional infrastructure.

• Wintermute entered event contracts last week, BitGo partnered with Susquehanna Crypto in March, and Jump Trading struck market-making deals with Polymarket and Kalshi in February.

• Galaxy had been exploring the space since November and was reportedly in talks to serve as liquidity provider for both platforms.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Coinbase Backs Ethena With Open Market ENA Buy

Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA on the open market and announced a partnership with Ethena to grow onchain finance and savings products, with an integration bringing Ethena products to Coinbase’s 100M+ user base launching next week.

• The partnership includes Circle’s USDC, though the exact collaboration structure remains unclear.

• Ethena founder Guy Young cited the Clarity Act as a potential tailwind for USDe, as the legislation could allow exchanges to reward users for holding stablecoins.

• ENA jumped roughly 6% following the announcement.

• USDe has lost significant market cap and seen sustained outflows since late last year, making the Coinbase distribution a meaningful lifeline.

• Prior backers include Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom, Dragonfly, Brevan Howard, Franklin Templeton, and YZi Labs, which increased its stake last September.

Other notable feature updates:

• Sei published the Giga Roadmap.

• Apyx boosts Season 2 points to 196x.

• X Layer brings tokenized stocks via xStocks.

• Venice cuts VVV emissions toward deflation.

• Radiant Capital sunsets after failed recovery.

• Securitize launches Private Credit Fund on TRON.

• Re Protocol expands reinsurance program portfolio.

• Morpho released the upcoming Morpho Midnight whitepaper.

QUICK BITES

• MoneyGram debuts MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar.

• Mastercard expands stablecoin settlement options.

• Crypto derivatives activity slumps to late-2023 levels.

• Strive adds 2,500 BTC to treasury as Saylor’s Strategy sells.

• Coinbase invests in Ethena via open market purchase of ENA.

• Galaxy Digital opens OTC prediction market trading for institutions.

• Coinbase investing into stablecoin reserves ETF issued by ProShares.

• Spot bitcoin ETFs extend negative streak, following $2.4B outflows in May.

• Vitalik Buterin proposes options-based synthetic assets to avoid liquidations.

• CME’s 24/7 crypto derivatives market sees $50M in opening weekend trading.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Gaspardlezin’s read on Privacy stablecoins.

• a16z’s read on Why prediction markets matter.

• Stacy’s read on Three categories Dominating the RWA Landscape.

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Good Morning,

Dimon went on Fox Business to call Brian Armstrong “full of sh--” and vow to fight the Clarity Act, which is the most entertaining way to confirm that crypto-native stablecoin rewards are a genuine existential threat to traditional deposit banking.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Dimon Vows to Fight Clarity Act 👀

• Product of the Week: ICE Eyes Onchain Perps Market Entry 🔎

• Charts: US Seizes $1B in Iranian Crypto, SpaceX Perp Flash Crash 📊

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Neutrl Season 2 is live. Final season before TGE

Season 2 of the Neutrl Origin Program introduces Founders’ Locks, a new lock tier designed for long-duration positions with the highest points multipliers in the program. Two tiers, one goal: reward capital that stays.

Founders’ Short

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Founders’ Long

• 700x points per day per NUSD

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Liquid sNUSD positions across DeFi venues still earn Neutrl Points like in S01, but S02 is built around one thesis: longer commitment, higher reward.

S01 Loyalty Bonus

• Earned 1M+ Neutrl Points in S01? A 10% Loyalty Bonus is automatically applied across all S02 activities. No action needed.

More integrations, deployment strategies, and new ways to earn are coming. This is the last season before the token launches. The window is open now.

Learn More About Netrl Origin Program

WHAT MATTERS

Dimon Vows to Fight Clarity Act

State of play: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon publicly opposed the Clarity Act in its current form, calling out Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong by name and pledging that banks will fight the bill over stablecoin rewards and inadequate AML protections.

• Dimon’s core objection is that the Clarity Act allows crypto firms to effectively pay interest on stablecoin deposits without the regulatory protections banks are required to maintain.

• Dimon said Armstrong, who is spending hundreds of millions lobbying for the bill, is “full of sh--,” with Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer responding that the goal is preserving rewards programs and passing clear rules for Americans.

• The stablecoin rewards provision has become the most contentious issue surrounding the Clarity Act, with the 2026 midterms and Trump’s crypto interests adding further political complexity to the bill’s prospects.

Why it matters: The traditional banking lobby is now actively mobilizing against the Clarity Act, putting the bill’s stablecoin rewards provision, its most crypto-friendly feature, at serious risk.

Our take: Dimon’s position is defensible in principle but the volume is political. The real danger is that banking pressure strips the bill of anything meaningful before it hits the floor.

For builders and investors: Stablecoin rewards are the line in the sand. If that provision survives, crypto-native platforms get a massive distribution wedge against banks. If it gets stripped, the Clarity Act is just regulatory overhead.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

ICE Eyes Onchain Perps Market Entry

ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher confirmed the exchange has met with Hyperliquid multiple times to explore onchain perpetual futures, framing prior regulatory conversations not as complaints but as ICE seeking permission to compete in a market it wants to enter.

• ICE is already working with OKX to list oil perpetual contracts tracking Brent Crude and WTI benchmarks, signaling a concrete first move into onchain commodities derivatives.

• Sprecher flagged the SpaceX IPO on June 11 as a live test case for onchain price discovery, noting TradeXYZ on Hyperliquid has already been running pre-IPO perps tied to SpaceX.

• Hyperliquid’s 24/7 markets have attracted non-crypto traders seeking weekend exposure to oil during Middle East conflict, a use case Sprecher described as driving significant recent activity.

Other cool products:

• Oku Trade, a DeFi trading platform and meta-aggregator.

• Odyssey Finance, a DeFi trading, liquidity, and yield into one interface.

• Hastra, a DeFi protocol that connects institutional-grade RWAs with crypto.

• Praxis Protocol, a trust and infra network to connect AI agents and trading bots.

• infiniFi, a DeFi protocol designed to recreate fractional reserve banking on-chain.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

US Seizes $1B in Iranian Crypto

State of play: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the US has seized roughly $1B in Iranian crypto assets, nearly double the $500M figure cited just a month prior, as part of an escalating sanctions enforcement campaign targeting wallets directly.

• Bessent said Iran had been stealing $400M to $500M per month through sanctions evasion, calling the seized assets “money stolen from the Iranian people.”

• Seized crypto assets feed directly into the US strategic bitcoin reserve, with the government currently holding approximately 328,372 BTC worth roughly $24B at current prices.

• The US has gone from seizing $500M to $1B in Iranian crypto in under 30 days, signaling an accelerating enforcement posture rather than a one-time action.

Our Take: The message is clear: crypto is not a sanctions escape hatch anymore, and the wallets are being grabbed in real time.

SpaceX Perp Flash Crash Triggers Liquidations

State of play: Ventuals’ pre-IPO SpaceX perpetual on Hyperliquid dropped 45% in 30 minutes due to a faulty oracle data feed, liquidating 484 users and wiping $1.74M in notional value before partially recovering.

• SPACEX-USDH fell from $2,277 to $1,254 before recovering to ~$2,174, with the crash traced to incorrect data from an offchain pricing provider corrupting oracle and mark prices.

• Ventuals committed to compensating affected users within 48 hours, though the total compensation amount has not been disclosed.

• Ventuals also runs pre-IPO perps for Anthropic ($7.80M open interest) and OpenAI ($3.34M open interest), raising broader questions about oracle reliability across its pre-IPO product suite.

Our take: A single faulty oracle wiping $1.74M across 484 accounts exposes how thin the risk infrastructure is on pre-IPO perps. Compensation is table stakes. The real fix is redundant pricing sources.

QUICK BITES

• US has seized nearly $1B in crypto from Iran.

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs see record 10-day outflow streak.

• SEC sues Privvy founder over $12.3M crypto scheme.

• CFTC opens door for crypto perpetual future contracts in US.

• Dev helps rescue $2M locked in 2016 ICO contract for nine years.

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon blasts Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong.

• NYDIG suggests $1.3B IBIT sale was whale exiting directional trade.

• Court-ordered Circle freeze traps $12.6M in Zama cUSDC contract.

• Cardano Foundation cancels 2026 summit after treasury funding vote falls short.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Bmoney’s read on Neobank 101.

• DWF’s read on The Pre-IPO Gold Rush.

• Joseph’s read on Ethereum Going Back on Offense.

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Good Morning

Grayscale is throwing $115M at a HYPE ETF seed round from a counterparty nobody can identify, and that mystery is doing more to drive conversation than the fund itself.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Grayscale Bets $115M on HYPE 👀

• Founders Highlight: Nicolas le Jeune of Courtyard 👨

• Deal Flows: Samsung Units Buy $408M Upbit Stake 💰️

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Grayscale Bets $115M on HYPE

State of play: Grayscale is negotiating a seed investment of roughly 2M HYPE tokens (~$115M) for its proposed Hyperliquid Staking ETF, with an unknown entity called Hyper Holdings Global LP listed as the potential investor.

• The updated SEC filing is primarily aimed at renaming the fund from “Grayscale HYPE ETF” to “Grayscale Hyperliquid Staking ETF,” with Nasdaq ticker HYPG.

• Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart flagged the filing on social media, questioning who or what Hyper Holdings Global LP actually is.

• 21Shares and Bitwise were first to market with HYPE-based ETFs earlier this month, with 21Shares’ THYP fund reaching trading volumes roughly 8x its first-day activity.

Why it matters: Grayscale seeding its own ETF with $115M in HYPE signals conviction, but the mystery counterparty is a real due diligence flag the market shouldn’t ignore.

Our take: Hyper Holdings Global LP is the only question that matters here. A $115M seed from an unidentified entity smells like a related-party arrangement until proven otherwise.

For builders and investors: HYPE ETF competition is moving fast. With THYP already showing organic volume growth and HYPE above $60, Grayscale is playing catch-up with balance sheet firepower.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Nicolas le Jeune of Courtyard

Intro: Nicolas le Jeune is the Co-Founder and the CEO of Courtyard, the physically-backed NFT and collectibles marketplace.

Previous background: Nicolas brings 8+ years across sales, partnerships, and operations, with most of his career at Google as a Strategic Partner Manager for YouTube working with music labels and movie studios. Outside of Courtyard, he produces music as a DJ.

The big idea: Nicolas through Courtyard aims to bring absolute liquidity, transparency, and safety to the real-world collectibles market by turning physical items into tradeable digital twins (NFTs) on the blockchain.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Bitcoin Whale Accumulation Stalls Hard

CryptoQuant’s head of research warns that whale and dolphin accumulation has simultaneously stalled, mirroring 2022 bear market conditions, as weak new demand leaves long-term holders sitting on coins with no one to sell to.

• Whale balances are contracting year-over-year at the fastest pace of 2026, while dolphin annual growth has decelerated sharply from a peak of +0.97M BTC in October 2025.

• Long-term holder supply has hit a record 15.8M BTC, but roughly 900K of that reflects Coinbase reserves mechanically aging past the 155-day threshold rather than genuine new demand.

• Short-term holder supply has dropped from 6.4M BTC in December 2025 to ~4.2M BTC currently, with bitcoin now trading around $73,400 after peaking above $126,000 last October.

DEAL FLOWS

Samsung Units Buy $408M Upbit Stake

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $65M+ in deals 💼

Three Samsung affiliates are acquiring a combined 4% stake in Dunamu, Upbit’s parent company, as South Korea’s largest financial institutions race to position ahead of incoming crypto regulation.

• Samsung Securities takes a 2% stake focused on tokenized securities distribution, Samsung SDS targets blockchain and AI capabilities via Dunamu’s Ethereum L2, and Samsung Card aims to build a digital asset payment ecosystem on its Monimo app.

• The deal follows Hana Bank’s $670M acquisition of a 6.55% stake in Dunamu two weeks prior, with Mirae Asset also having acquired a 92% stake in Korbit exchange in February.

• South Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act is currently in development, covering stablecoins, tokenized securities, and on-chain payments, driving urgency across the country’s major financial institutions.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Didit, $7.5M Seed Round

• JPYC, $19.5M Series B Round

• ClawMax, $3M Strategic Round

• AIW3.ai, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Luffa, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Otomato, $2M Unknown Round

• Squid, $6M Unknown Round

• PopDEX, $30M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• CFTC says it shouldn’t have sued Gemini.

• Sui experiences second ‘stall’ in five months.

• IBIT sees near-record outflows as BTC dips below $75K.

• Tether’s USAT supply grows 540% month-over-month.

• Polymarket weighs KYC requirements amid global crackdown.

• Crypto card monthly transaction volume surges 230% from 2025.

• Samsung units to acquire $408 million stake in Upbit operator Dunamu.

• The Digital Chamber ramps up pressure on Congress to pass Clarity Act.

• Treasury Secretary reiterates ‘no CBDC’ commitment under Trump admin.

• Grayscale’s Hyperliquid ETF negotiating ‘seed’ investment of ~115M in HYPE.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• YC’s read on YC Crypto deals.

• Wintermute’s read on An exit is only an exit if it holds.

• Simo’s read on Why $100M is the boring part of Aave V4.

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Good Morning.

Bitmine keeps buying while everyone else is watching the drawdown, dropping $235M on 111,942 ETH at sub-$2,200 to hit 5.39M tokens and 89% of its 5% supply target, a pace that’s less about price conviction and more about locking in a position too large to unwind.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Bitmine Nears 5% Ethereum Supply Goal 👀

• Case Study: Liquid Brings Live Trading to AI Chats 🔎

• Governance & Features: Stable Launches Institutional USDT Yield Product 🚀

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Bitmine Nears 5% Ethereum Supply Goal

State of play: Bitmine used ETH’s drop below $2,200 to add another 111,942 tokens, pushing its treasury to 5.39M ETH worth ~$11.4B and landing it 89% of the way to owning 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.

• Bitmine added 111,942 ETH for over $235M, with Chairman Tom Lee calling the price decline below $2,200 an attractive buying opportunity.

• The company now holds 5.39M ETH worth ~$11.4B at current prices, making it the world’s second-largest crypto treasury behind Strategy.

• ETH is down nearly 30% year to date after falling from above $2,400 to near $2,000, partly driven by profit-taking.

• Over 4.7M of Bitmine’s held tokens are staked, worth roughly $10.1B.

• Bitmine shares rose 4% to $19.66 on the news, closely tracking ETH’s year-to-date performance.

Why it matters: A single entity controlling 5% of ETH supply becomes a systemic price mover, making Bitmine’s accumulation strategy a market structure issue, not just a treasury play.

Our take: t this scale, Bitmine can’t quietly exit, the 5% target isn’t a milestone, it’s a point of no return.

For builders and investors: Institutional treasuries anchoring to ETH validates the chain, but also introduces concentration risk that didn’t exist two years ago.

CASE STUDY

Liquid Brings Live Trading to AI Chats

Liquid launched Co-Invest inside ChatGPT and Claude, letting users fund accounts, analyze markets, and execute live trades across 500+ markets without leaving the AI interface.

• Co-Invest covers crypto, equities, forex, Polymarket positions, and pre-IPO secondaries, with deposits, stop-loss controls, and trade confirmation all handled natively in chat.

• Unlike MoonPay’s ChatGPT app, which redirects users offsite to complete transactions, Co-Invest runs the full trade flow inside the conversation.

• The platform is non-custodial, routes to venues including Hyperliquid and Ostium, and has processed over $3B in volume across ~40,000 users since August 2025.

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INSIGHTS

Base Launches MCP Gateway for AI Wallets

State of play: Base released an MCP gateway that connects users’ Base Accounts to any AI interface supporting the open MCP standard, enabling token swaps, fund transfers, and onchain app interactions via natural language prompts.

• Base MCP links to apps including Morpho, Moonwell, Aerodrome, and Uniswap, covering lending, swaps, perps, and token launches at launch.

• The protocol is fully non-custodial, with the MCP server never accessing private keys, transactions are built locally and queued for user review and signing.

• Authentication runs on OAuth 2.1, and the local transaction construction model is designed to reduce phishing and domain hijacking risks common in web-based crypto apps.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Stable Launches Institutional USDT Yield Product

Stable, the USDT-dedicated L1 backed by Bitfinex, Hack VC, and Franklin Templeton, launched StableEarn, a yield product routing USDT deposits into RWA-backed instruments rather than crypto token emissions.

• Yield is generated through Theo’s RWA suite tied to assets like Treasurys and gold, with products including thUSD, thBILL, and thGOLD developed with Standard Chartered’s Libeara and Wellington Management.

• StableEarn is built on Morpho with risk parameters managed by Gauntlet, using a vault structure that automates deposit deployment into yield strategies.

• Stable raised $28M in its seed round and launched mainnet last year, positioning StableEarn as the next step in making USDT productive onchain.

Other notable feature updates:

• Solstice opens live Season 1 SLX claims.

• Royco Dawn drops fees across all markets.

• Native Markets begins USDH platform sunset.

• Pendle lists Strata srNUSD and jrNUSD markets.

• Babylon proposes native BTC collateral for Aave.

• Binance renews USD1 yield campaign incentives.

• Neutrl adds reserve allocation transparency tools.

• Tangent launches USG borrowing and points program.

• Hyperliquid removes external oracles from prediction markets.

QUICK BITES

• DeFi TVL slides 14% since KelpDAO exploit.

• China’s top court to study judicial rules for crypto.

• Base blockchain rolls out MCP gateway to AI interfaces.

• Tokenized Pokémon card marketplaces hit record $7.4M.

• Spain blocks Polymarket, Kalshi for operating without licenses.

• Trump vows to codify ‘future-proof’ digital asset market structure.

• White House starts review of CFTC’s prediction markets rulemaking.

• Spot bitcoin ETFs continue outflow streak amid $1.3B IBIT whale trade.

• US charges Google engineer for using internal data to get $1.2M on Polymarket.

• Coinbase taps Standard Chartered to expand funding rails for institutional clients.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Rohit’s read on $ETH resurgence 2.0.

• David Hoffman’s read on Why He Sold His ETH.

• Stacy’s read on Three categories Dominating the RWA Landscape.

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Good Morning,

Washington wants the bitcoin without the bill. The new ARMA reserve bill quietly drops the 1M BTC purchase mandate for “budget-neutral” study, recasting the reserve as a 20-year vault for seized assets rather than an aggressive buyer, while Binance fends off another WSJ report on Iran-linked flows it calls “fundamentally inaccurate.”

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Bitcoin Reserve Bill Drops Purchase Target 👀

• Product of the Week: OKX and ICE Partner on Oil Perps 🔎

• Charts: HYPE Hits $64 Record, NEAR Jumps 30% 📊

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Bitcoin Reserve Bill Drops Purchase Target

State of play: A new bipartisan House bill, ARMA, would lock US government bitcoin into a strategic reserve for 20 years while quietly dropping the prior 1M BTC purchase mandate in favor of “budget-neutral” study.

• The 20-year lockup bars any sale or transfer, after which Treasury could sell up to 10% per two-year period.

• ARMA sets no acquisition target, studying budget-neutral methods like forfeitures, gold revaluations, and tariff revenue.

• It requires a full federal digital asset accounting within 60 days plus quarterly proof-of-reserve reports.

• Arkham pegs current US government crypto holdings at roughly $26B.

• The bill codifies Trump’s 2025 executive order.

Separately, Binance is disputing a fresh WSJ report alleging $850M in Iran-linked transactions moved through the exchange, with CEO Richard Teng calling it “fundamentally inaccurate”.

• The denial matters less than the backdrop of an active DOJ probe, a Treasury monitoring demand, and Binance’s own live defamation suit over the WSJ’s February reporting.

Why it matters: Dropping the 1M BTC target turns the reserve from a market-moving buyer into a passive holder of seized assets.

Our take: The 20-year lockup is the real teeth, but stripping the purchase mandate concedes taxpayer-funded buying was never politically viable.

For builders and investors: The budget-neutral study will decide whether the reserve grows beyond forfeitures or stays a rebranded seized-asset pile.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

OKX and ICE Partner on Oil Perps

OKX is teaming with ICE, the NYSE’s parent, to list oil perpetual contracts tracking Brent and WTI benchmarks, even as ICE simultaneously pressures US regulators to rein in onchain rival Hyperliquid.

• The perps will reference ICE’s Brent Crude and WTI Crude, pitched as regulated, transparent access to major energy benchmarks for retail traders.

• Commodity perps have surged on onchain venues like Hyperliquid and Lighter and are now rolling out on centralized exchanges including Binance and Coinbase.

• Last week it emerged that ICE and CME are pushing US regulators to curb Hyperliquid, citing risks to systemically important oil markets.

Other cool products:

• Tangent, a yield bearing stablecoin protocol.

• Borrower Hub, an institutional borrowing interface.

• Flex, a fixed-rate money market inspired by Liquity V2.

• Aviya, a compliance-gated credit venue on Hyperliquid.

• Loopscale, a curated vaults combining fixed-yield lending, looping, MM, perps.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

NEAR Jumps 30% on AI Hype and Hayes Nod

State of play: NEAR spiked as much as 31% in a day, settling around $2.23, as an Arthur Hayes endorsement, AI narratives, institutional inflows, and a June scaling upgrade stacked up as catalysts.

• Hayes recently dubbed NEAR, HYPE, and ZEC “the holy trinity” of altcoins, helping fuel retail interest.

• Bitwise reported significant inflows into its NEAR ETP, a possible sign of growing institutional demand.

• Next month’s upgrade adds dynamic resharding to expand capacity, alongside buyback mechanisms and a privacy push.

• Co-founder Illia Polosukhin’s AI pedigree is spotlighting the token, though NEAR remains an L1 competing with Ethereum and Solana.

• NEAR is up over 50% on the month, near a $3B market cap, trading around 56x annualized fees.

Our Take: The AI branding and Hayes nod are doing the heavy lifting here, while the actual catalyst worth watching, fee growth and revenue capture, is the one nobody’s tweeting about.

HYPE Hits $64 Record as Sell Debate Erupts

State of play: HYPE touched a record $64.28 on May 24, pushing its market cap to $16B and ninth-largest crypto, before trader cyclop’s decision to sell most of his stack at the peak split the market.

• Cyclop offloaded 60% of his spot HYPE at $64, citing overheated sentiment, and plans to DCA back in around $28-$42.

• He still called HYPE the likely “#1 runner” of the next cycle even while flagging a local top.

• A 9.9M token unlock on May 28 is feeding caution among sellers.

• Critics labeled the exit a fakeout while bulls compared selling to missing Solana’s run.

• Charts point to a possible cooldown to $45-$50, though many still see HYPE leading the next bull cycle.

Our take: “Selling but it’s still the #1 runner” is the trader having it both ways, and the May 28 unlock is the real overhang the price-target debate is dancing around.

QUICK BITES

• Spot bitcoin ETFs shed $1.26B in worst week.

• New strategic bitcoin reserve bill drops 1M BTC purchase target.

• Kalshi backs prediction markets lobby group with former Trump official.

• Binance denies new WSJ report alleging $850M in Iran-linked transactions.

• FTX’s former law firm, auditor agree to pay $66M to settle customer claims.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Spencer’s read on The Things That Don’t Exist Yet.

• Vitalik’s read on the Future of Ethereum Foundation.

• Blockaid’s read on exploit targeting the SquidRouterModule on ETH and Base.

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Good Morning

HYPE blew past $61 to a fresh record this week, but look closer and the rally has a self-referential quality, with Bitwise buying the token using its own ETF fees and Grayscale-linked wallets hoovering up $41.6M while a third spot ETF waits in the wings. Wall Street’s appetite is real, yet a float this aggressively squeezed by the same issuers selling exposure to it looks less like organic demand than scarcity engineered to resemble a milestone.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: HYPE Sets Record High Above $60 👀

• Founders Highlight: Ethan Buchman of Cycles Protocol 👨

• Deal Flows: Feist Floats $1B Ethereum Advocacy Group 💰️

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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Learn More About Arbital

WHAT MATTERS

HYPE Sets Record High Above $60

State of play: HYPE jumped past $61 to a new record, up over 20% in a day, as spot ETF inflows and Grayscale-linked accumulation pulled Wall Street money into Hyperliquid.

• US spot Hyperliquid ETFs pulled a record $25.5M Wednesday, lifting cumulative inflows to roughly $54M over seven trading days.

• 21Shares’ THYP led with $16.7M while Bitwise’s BHYP added $8.8M.

• Grayscale-linked wallets accumulated over 682,000 HYPE worth about $41.6M last week, including $7M bought in a single hour Thursday.

• Bitwise plans to spend 10% of BHYP management fees buying and staking HYPE for its own balance sheet.

• HYPE peaked near $58.50 last September before sliding to $21 at the start of 2026.

Why it matters: Flows outpacing early BTC ETFs on a market-cap-adjusted basis show institutional plumbing now reaches past the majors into single-venue perp tokens.

Our take: A token buying itself with its own ETF fees while issuers stockpile inventory looks less like organic Wall Street demand and more like manufactured scarcity dressed as a milestone.

For builders and investors: Grayscale’s own spot HYPE ETF is still pending, and approval would add a third structural buyer to a float already getting squeezed.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Ethan Buchman of Cycles Protocol

Intro: Ethan Buchman is the Co-Founder of Cycles Protocol, an open clearing protocol that uses privacy-preserving tech (TEEs and ZKPs) and graph algorithms to net out and settle the most debt among the most participants with the least capital.

Previous background: Before Cycles, Ethan co-founded the Cosmos and Tendermint projects, pioneering the “app-chain thesis” and building widely used infrastructure like CometBFT, IBC, and the Cosmos-SDK.

The big idea: Ethan’s and Cycles’ big idea is to bring clearing, the “financial superpower” big banks use to net out what they owe each other, to everyone by mapping who owes whom and canceling the loops so the most debt settles with the least cash.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Saturn Credit Tokenizes STRC Yield Onchain

Credits to Lambro for the original article

Saturn Credit hit $105M TVL in six weeks by splitting Strategy’s 11.5% STRC preferred dividends into a Treasury-backed stablecoin (USDat) and a separate yield layer (sUSDat), letting users choose their STRC exposure.

• USDat is backed 100% by tokenized US Treasuries via M0 and carries zero STRC risk, while sUSDat converts that collateral into STRC for ~9.8% APY.

• A dynamic reserve mechanism auto-shifts collateral from STRC to Treasuries as Strategy’s leverage rises, cutting yield to zero but protecting principal in stress.

• The ecosystem stacks five DeFi layers (Curve, Pendle, Strata tranching, Morpho looping) with strategies ranging from 8.91% fixed to 64% leveraged.

• Incubated by YZi Labs (Binance Labs) and backed by Spartan and Susquehanna, with founder Kevin Li featured onstage at Strategy’s own conference by Saylor.

• The token doesn’t exist yet (no name, supply, or TGE date), and the program terms can change anytime.

DEAL FLOWS

Feist Floats $1B Ethereum Advocacy Group

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $150M+ in deals 💼

Former EF developer Dankrad Feist proposed a new $1B-funded organization “economically aligned” with Ethereum to “save” ETH, sharpening community frustration with the Foundation.

• Feist wants the group run by an accountable board explicitly tasked with pushing ETH’s price higher, funded partly by staking revenue.

• He noted the EF now holds under 0.1% of all ETH and receives no staking or fee revenue.

• The proposal lands amid a wave of departures, with researchers Carl Beek and Julian Ma resigning this week.

• Feist himself left last year for Layer 1 Tempo, while ex-researcher Danny Ryan co-founded marketing arm Etherealize.

• ETH trades around $2,148 with a market cap above $250B.

Deal flows in the past week:

• AEON, $8M Pre-Seed Round

• Sorted Wallet, $4.4M Seed Round

• Checker, $8M Seed Round

• Status, $17M Series A Round

• Catena Labs, $30M Series A Round

• Variational, $50M Series A Round

• DAOKraft, $3.4M Private Round

• DACC, $10M Strategic Round

• Dunamu, $670M Strategic Round

• Ouinex, $3.5M Equity Round

• Tomoland, $2M Unknown Round

• Nof1, $15M Unknown Round

• LemFi, Undisclosed $ Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• HYPE token sets new record high above $60.

• Blockchain.com confidentially files for US IPO.

• Ethereum Layer 2 Zero Network to wind down.

• Galaxy’s Novogratz and BitGo face off in court over $100M claim.

• Dankrad Feist suggests $1B raise to form new Ethereum advocacy group.

• Hyperliquid ETFs attract record $25.5M in net inflows as institutions pile in.

• JPMorgan says tokenized MMFs unlikely to top 15% of the stablecoin market.

• Cosmos co-founder’s new multilateral clearing startup Cycles raises $6.4M.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• YC’s read on YC Crypto deals.

• Lambro’s read on Saturn Credit Full Report.

• GeekPark’s read on How China is Playing a Different AI game.

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Good Morning.

Hyperliquid just rewrote who keeps the yield, forcing Circle and Coinbase to share reserve income they always treated as their own, and the uncomfortable part for issuers is that the leverage was never theirs to begin with. Whoever holds the deposits sets the terms now, and the line of protocols waiting to demand the same cut is only going to get longer.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Hyperliquid Flips Stablecoin Reserve Economics 👀

• Case Study: TD Cowen Lifts Strategy Target to $400 🔎

• Governance & Features: 3F Builds Leveraged RWA Markets on Morpho 🦋

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Hyperliquid Flips Stablecoin Reserve Economics

State of play: Hyperliquid’s new deal makes USDC its official Aligned Quote Asset and routes up to 90% of reserve income to the protocol, redirecting yield that long flowed to Circle and Coinbase.

• Coinbase becomes treasury deployer while Circle handles minting and redemptions, with USDH set to sunset over time.

• The structure ties Hyperliquid revenue to deposits rather than trading volume, making token buybacks more resilient through downturns.

• Analysts peg near-term yield-sharing revenue at $135M to $160M, with upside to $300M to $500M if balances grow.

• Compass Point estimates $60M to $80M in combined annual EBITDA pulled from Circle and Coinbase.

• HYPE has climbed nearly 10% over the past week, defying broader market weakness.

Why it matters: Stablecoin issuers have spent years assuming reserve yield was theirs to keep, and Hyperliquid just exposed that assumption as a negotiating position rather than a law of nature.

Our take: Distribution beats issuance, and the platforms sitting on the deposits now hold the pricing power, leaving Circle defending margins it never really owned.

For builders and investors: Watch whether Polymarket and Jupiter force the same terms, because a wave of yield-sharing demands would reprice Circle and Coinbase well before it shows up in their guidance.

CASE STUDY

TD Cowen Lifts Strategy Target to $400

TD Cowen raised its Strategy price target to $400 from $395 on a Buy rating, citing faster-than-modeled bitcoin accumulation and a $1.5B accretive repurchase of out-of-the-money convertible notes.

• Preferred equity issuance drove roughly $1.95B in Q2 raises, with nearly all proceeds deployed into bitcoin.

• Strategy is on track for about 100,000 BTC bought in Q2, lifting full-year BTC Yield projections to 19.8% from 18.2%.

• The $1.5B note buyback at an 8% discount cuts diluted share exposure while improving credit quality.

• Strategy now holds 843,738 BTC, more than 4% of the 21M supply cap, after its largest single-week purchase this year.

• The target implies more than 140% upside from Monday’s $166.63 close, down roughly 63% from its 52-week high.

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INSIGHTS

Stablecoin Supply Stalls as Tether Gains

State of play: Total stablecoin supply topped $300B, but net growth was just 0.3% over the past month as Tether added over $5B while USDC, USDe, and PYUSD shed a combined $4.2B.

• Every marginal stablecoin dollar entering the system is now a USDT dollar replacing a redeemed rival.

• USDe fell 28% in a month as compressed perp funding gutted the yield underpinning Ethena’s synthetic dollar.

• Overcollateralized alternatives absorbed the rotation, with Sky’s USDS up 48.9% and World Liberty’s USD1 up 33.7% year to date.

• PYUSD supply dropped 13% over the month as its institutional distribution thesis failed to drive growth.

• Bank-issued and GENIUS Act-compliant entrants have had a harder start than many expected.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

3F Builds Leveraged RWA Markets on Morpho

3F is a leveraged yield marketplace built on Morpho, betting that Morpho’s minimal base layer lets it ship opinionated customization rather than bootstrap an unproven lending protocol from scratch.

• Morpho’s stripped-down design gives 3F room to build features the base layer does not impose itself.

• These include exclusive borrow in 3F-onboarded markets and custom pre-liquidation and liquidation premiums.

• Fixed-rate borrow is on the roadmap, extending what 3F layers on top of Morpho.

• Building on Morpho sidesteps the hard task of convincing bootstrap capital to leave protocols with proven Lindy.

• The tradeoff is dependence on Morpho’s primitives rather than owning the full lending stack.

Other notable feature updates:

• Nest sunsets USDH liquidity pool support.

• Re adds GHO borrowing incentives on Fluid.

• Wintermute launches Armitage USDC vault.

• Ink adopts Chainlink Scale across ecosystem.

• 3F launches leveraged Centrifuge CLO strategy.

• Flex launches fixed-rate isolated money market.

• Apyx publishes independent reserve attestation.

• RAAC enables gold-backed pmUSD redemptions.

• Polymarket partners with Nasdaq Private Market.

• Solstice boosts Exponent market reward multipliers.

QUICK BITES

• Ethereum leads $65B RWA race.

• Spot bitcoin ETFs log $649M in net outflows.

• TD Cowen raises Strategy price target to $400.

• Tokenized equities daily volume hits all-time high of $3.57B.

• South Carolina Governor signs pro-crypto, anti-CBDC bill into law.

• Senator Warren criticizes OCC over Ripple, Coinbase’s trust charters.

• CFTC sues Minnesota over first explicit state ban on prediction markets.

• Trump orders Fed to review giving crypto firms access to master accounts.

• Tether, Gnosis co-lead $4.4M seed round for mobile-friendly Sorted Wallet.

• Stablecoin supply tops $300B but growth stalls as Tether gains at rivals’ expense.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Viktor’s read on VVV: Crypto AI’s Revenue Story.

• 100y’s read on Tokenization Gone Wrong Could Fragment Stocks.

• Stacy’s read on Three categories Dominating the RWA Landscape.

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Good Morning,

The gatekept world of late-stage private equity is being routed around, not reformed. TradeXYZ’s SpaceX launch and the Cerebras print suggest pre-IPO perps are graduating from retail curiosity to a credible price discovery layer, even as VCs insist the liquidity isn’t there yet.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Pre-IPO Perps Eye SpaceX Listing 👀

• Product of the Week: OpenSea Pivots to Tokenized Collectibles 🔎

• Charts: THORChain $10M Exploit, Hana Bank Buys $670M Dunamu Stake 📊

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Pre-IPO Perps Eye SpaceX Listing

State of play: TradeXYZ launched SpaceX pre-IPO perps ahead of a potential $1.75T listing, positioning crypto-native synthetic markets as a faster price discovery venue than traditional secondaries.

• TradeXYZ priced Cerebras perps within 3% of its Nasdaq open, while Hiive’s secondary market lagged at $225 versus the $350 open.

• Cerebras perps generated $207M in notional volume over two weeks, with retail traders up 90% from the IPO price.

• Liquidity, manipulation, and offshore regulatory exposure remain the core risks; current open interest is too thin for VCs to hedge fund-mark positions.

Why it matters: Pre-IPO perps are turning crypto rails into a price discovery layer for the $8T trapped in private markets.

Our take: Cerebras was the proof-of-concept. Synthetic SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic exposure is exactly the retail demand crypto rails capture best, and TradeXYZ is running away with the category.

For builders and investors: Watch HIP-3 volume and SpaceX perp open interest. Edge accrues to oracle infrastructure and venues that can scale OI past institutional hedging size.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

OpenSea Pivots to Tokenized Collectibles

OpenSea’s CMO sees the next NFT cycle driven by tokenized Pokémon cards, Rolexes, and tickets rather than PFPs, with the platform retooling around fiat onboarding and multi-chain asset management.

• OpenSea is adding Apple Pay-style fiat rails and dollar-denominated pricing to meet mainstream buyers where they are.

• The platform is positioning as a unified hub for assets, NFTs, and collectibles across wallets and chains.

• The SEA token remains delayed, with launch contingent on a sustainable business underneath rather than a memecoin drop.

Other cool products:

• Osero, a stablecoin savings protocol.

• 3F, a leveraged RWA marketplace built on Morpho.

• RISE’s USDR, a T-bill-backed yield-bearing stablecoin built on M0.

• Upshift Clear, an instant redemption infrastructure for tokenized RWAs.

• Hotstuff Invest, a spot trading platform for tokenized stocks, ETFs, and crypto.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

THORChain Halts Trading After $10M Exploit

State of play: THORChain paused trading after security researchers flagged a suspected multi-chain exploit draining one of its Asgard vaults, with RUNE falling as much as 11% on the news.

• ZachXBT and PeckShield identified theft addresses across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Base, with losses estimated above $10M.

• THORChain confirmed roughly $10.7M in protocol-owned funds compromised, saying user swaps appear unaffected.

• The incident extends a pattern that includes the 2025 ThorFi insolvency, a $200M debt restructuring, and repeated use as a laundering route for unrelated hacks.

Our Take: THORChain’s exploit and solvency track record is too long to write off. RUNE holders are pricing structural risk, not a one-off.

Hana Bank Buys $670M Dunamu Stake

State of play: Hana Bank is acquiring a 6.55% stake in Upbit operator Dunamu for $670M, marking Korea’s largest banking sector investment in a digital asset firm as the Digital Asset Basic Act takes shape.

• Hana purchases 2.28M shares from Kakao Investments, becoming Dunamu’s fourth-largest shareholder ahead of a June 15 close.

• The deal builds on Hana’s existing Circle, Crypto.com, Standard Chartered, and BitGo Korea partnerships.

• Dunamu is simultaneously processing a merger with Naver Financial that would consolidate Upbit under one of Korea’s largest tech groups.

Our take: Korean banks are buying into crypto rails before the Digital Asset Basic Act locks the perimeter. Hana’s bet: exchange equity beats licensing partnerships once stablecoin rules go live.

QUICK BITES

• Bitcoin Depot files for Chapter 11 to wind down business.

• Ongoing exploit drains $11.6M from Verus-Ethereum bridge.

• Japan’s SBI, Rakuten developing crypto investment trusts in-house.

• House Agriculture leaders press Trump to appoint CFTC commissioners.

• Italy’s largest bank more than doubles crypto holdings to $235M in Q1.

• Harvard dumps ether ETF as Abu Dhabi fund keeps adding to BTC positions.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Spencer’s read on The Things That Don’t Exist Yet.

• Jason Rosenthal’s read on The New PMF Playbook.

• Alex’s read on DeFi Lending has 3 bps Crime Drag on EVM and Solana.

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Six weeks after the largest DeFi exploit of 2026, Kelp DAO and Aave are cautiously reopening rsETH operations, but the recovery has exposed just how dependent the sector has become on ad hoc coordination, federal courts, and belated apologies from infrastructure providers to clean up what a single misconfigured bridging default broke.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Kelp DAO, Aave Resume rsETH Operations 👀

• Case Study: Banks Misread Stablecoin Competitive Threat 🔎

• Governance & Features: JPMorgan Launches GENIUS-Ready Tokenized Fund 🚀

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Kelp DAO, Aave Resume rsETH Operations

State of play: Kelp DAO and Aave are moving to restore rsETH operations following the April 18 $292M exploit attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, marking the largest DeFi security breach of 2026.

• Kelp will progressively refill 117,132 stolen rsETH into the LayerZero OFT adapter over two weeks, with withdrawals unpausing within 24 hours of the first tranche.

• Aave confirmed early recovery steps are complete, including burning the exploiter’s rsETH on Arbitrum, with full operations resuming in the coming days.

• The exploit created ~$190M in bad debt on Aave after stolen rsETH was used as WETH collateral, prompting DeFi United, which raised over $300M in ETH.

• A federal court allowed Arbitrum to transfer ~$72M in frozen ETH to Aave, though funds remain locked pending court approval after terrorism plaintiffs filed a restraining order.

• LayerZero apologized for allowing 1-of-1 DVN configurations on high-value transactions, while Kelp is now migrating to Chainlink’s CCIP.

Why it matters: The Kelp exploit forced a sector-wide bailout and pulled federal courts into DeFi recovery, exposing how fragile cross-chain bridging defaults can be at scale.

Our take: DeFi United’s $300M raise was impressive coordination, but it sets a precedent for industry bailouts over security investment. LayerZero’s apology is too little, too late.

For builders and investors: Audit your LayerZero DVN configurations now. The Arbitrum restraining order also signals that frozen on-chain funds are increasingly vulnerable to off-chain legal claims.

CASE STUDY

Banks Misread Stablecoin Competitive Threat

Credits to @PaperImperium for the original tweet

A Fifth Third Bank deposit promotion is drawing scrutiny from @PaperImperium who argue that bank lobbying against stablecoins reflects a fundamental misreading of where the competitive threat actually lies.

• Fifth Third’s Relationship Money Market account is offering 4.25% APY through October 15, 2026, requiring a $25K minimum balance opened by June 15.

• Yield-bearing stablecoins are structurally capped at ~3.7% since they must hold equivalent backing assets, making them unable to outbid insured US bank deposits on rate.

• The accurate competitive frame is that stablecoins threaten foreign bank deposits, not domestic depository institutions.

• With over 12 US depositories offering 4% or better, it’s unclear which consumer would migrate to a lower-yielding, uninsured alternative.

• Bank lobbyists’ warnings about deposit flight suggest either a poor grasp of stablecoin mechanics or a tacit admission that their products lack competitive appeal.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Bitcoin Dominance Rebounds, Altcoin Rotation Stalls

State of play: Bitcoin dominance has recovered from ~55% to ~58.5%, signaling consolidation rather than a broad alt rotation as BTC climbs from $63K to ~$80K off February lows.

• Dominance peaked at 62-63% in mid-2025 before bottoming near 54% late last year as altcoin activity picked up.

• Rising dominance historically signals BTC outperformance; declining dominance tends to precede alt seasons.

• TON, ZEC, and DOGE have shown relative strength over the past month, a pattern that has historically preceded broader altcoin expansion.

• If BTC stalls while dominance dips, it strengthens the rotation-into-alts case; a grind higher in both suggests the market isn’t ready to broaden out.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

JPMorgan Launches GENIUS Act-Ready Tokenized Fund

JPMorgan is launching a second tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, JLTXX, explicitly designed to satisfy stablecoin reserve requirements under the GENIUS Act by investing in US Treasurys and overnight repurchase agreements.

• JLTXX will be managed on ETH via JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Assets unit, with expansion to other blockchains anticipated, and an SEC filing effective May 13.

• The fund is JPMorgan’s second tokenized MMF after MONY, which launched late last year targeting institutional onchain cash management.

• Morgan Stanley launched a similar stablecoin reserve-focused MMF last month, though without blockchain rails, while Franklin Templeton’s BENJI also competes in the space.

• The GENIUS Act requires US-compliant stablecoin issuers to back tokens with highly liquid assets including Treasurys, cash, and insured bank deposits.

• The tokenized RWA market has grown to ~$32.2B as of May 12, with tokenized US Treasury products representing the largest share at ~$15.9B.

Other notable feature updates:

• Circle unveils ARC Layer-1 tokenomics.

• 21Shares launches Hyperliquid ETF THYP.

• Royco Dawn opens sNUSD tranche vaults.

• Sushi launches Hyperliquid-powered Perps v2.

• Resolv finalizes recovery agreement with Fluid.

• Zest Protocol launches Bitcoin Collateral Vaults.

• CoW DAO approves DNS hijack reimbursements.

• Stream Finance provides update on reimbursement process.

QUICK BITES

• Bitcoin dominance rebounds above 58%.

• Kelp DAO, Aave to resume rsETH operations.

• Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic closes $120M Series D.

• eToro Q1 crypto revenue drops to $2.15B from last year’s $3.5B.

• JPMorgan launching second tokenized money market fund on Ethereum.

• First-ever Hyperliquid ETF launches, posts ‘very solid’ first day of trading.

• Spot XRP ETFs report largest single-day inflow since January, worth $26M.

• CFTC backs Kalshi in Ohio fight over prediction markets jurisdictional battle.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• A1’s read on Why Everything Is Becoming a Perp.

• blocmates’s read on HIP-4 vs. Kalshi vs. Polymarket.

• NB’s read on The Biggest Undervalued Neobank in Crypto.

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Good Morning,

a16z’s $300M bet on Canton lands as crypto venture deal counts hit multi-year lows. Institutional infrastructure is where the money is going, and privacy-native rails are emerging as the preferred architecture for tokenized finance.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Digital Asset Eyes $300M at $2B Valuation 👀

• Product of the Week: LayerZero Apologizes for Kelp DAO Exploit Handling 🔎

• Charts: Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF, Arbitrum’s $71M ETH 📊

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WHAT MATTERS

Digital Asset Eyes $300M at $2B Valuation

State of play: Digital Asset Holdings, the firm behind institutional blockchain Canton Network, is raising $300M at a $2B valuation in a round led by a16z crypto, its largest fundraise to date.

• The round follows a $135M raise in June 2025 led by DRW and Tradeweb, and a $50M raise in December 2025 from BNY Mellon, Nasdaq, S&P Global, and iCapital.

• Canton is a permissioned-privacy Layer 1 built for institutional finance, with over $6T in tokenized assets issued or processed on the network.

• Visa became a Canton Super Validator in March and added it to its stablecoin settlement pilot in April alongside Base, Polygon, Arc, and Tempo.

• The a16z investment comes less than a week after the firm closed its $2.2B fifth crypto fund, bringing total dedicated crypto capital to roughly $10B.

• Broader crypto venture activity has contracted sharply, with quarterly deal counts falling to 97 in Q1 2026 from 427 in the same period last year.

Why it matters: A $2B valuation and a16z leading confirms privacy-native L1s are becoming the preferred rails for institutional tokenized finance.

Our take: $6T processed and Visa as a validator is real traction. The open question is whether Canton becomes the default institutional settlement layer or just another chain in a multichain stack.

For builders and investors: Protocol-level privacy is the moat. Tokenized fund and settlement infrastructure belongs on Canton, not EVM chains with privacy add-ons bolted on.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

LayerZero Apologizes for Kelp DAO Exploit Handling

Three weeks after the $292M Kelp DAO exploit, LayerZero issued a public apology admitting fault in allowing its DVN to act as a sole verifier for high-value transactions, reversing its earlier stance that the protocol had functioned as intended.

• North Korea’s Lazarus Group compromised LayerZero’s internal RPC nodes and DDoS’d external ones, forcing the DVN onto poisoned infrastructure that signed off on transactions that never occurred.

• LayerZero initially blamed Kelp DAO’s configuration, but Kelp disputed this, citing LayerZero’s own docs and a Dune analysis showing 47% of active OApp contracts ran the same 1/1 DVN setup.

• LayerZero has since ended support for 1/1 DVN configurations and is migrating defaults to require at least five verifiers where possible.

• Two major protocols have migrated to Chainlink’s CCIP since the exploit: Kelp DAO and Solv Protocol, the latter moving over $700M in tokenized bitcoin.

• The DeFi United recovery initiative has raised over $300M in ETH and stablecoins, with LayerZero contributing 10,000 ETH split between a donation and a loan to Aave, which faces up to $230M in bad debt from the incident.

Other cool products:

• Pharos, a RealFi-focused L1.

• TradeXYZ’s pre-IPO perpetuals.

• Aftermath Finance, a perpetuals market on Sui.

• Outcome Markets, a prediction market platform native to Hyperliquid.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Court Clears Arbitrum’s $71M ETH for Aave

State of play: A Manhattan federal judge cleared 30,766 ETH frozen in Arbitrum DAO to transfer to Aave as part of the Kelp DAO exploit recovery, but the terrorism creditors’ legal claims on the funds survive the move.

• Arbitrum delegates voted 91% in favor of releasing the frozen ETH, which will become the single largest contribution to DeFi United’s $320M+ recovery effort.

• Judge Garnett explicitly shielded any party initiating, voting on, or participating in the transfer from violating the restraining notice, resolving delegate liability concerns.

• Aave agreed to be bound by the restraining notice upon receipt, meaning the funds could still be compelled back if terrorism creditors prevail in court.

• The plaintiffs’ legal theory rests on FSIA and TRIA statutes, arguing the ETH qualifies as North Korean sovereign property via Lazarus Group attribution, backed by three judgments totaling over $877M against the DPRK.

• The same creditors are pursuing a broader strategy to attach North Korean crypto assets across DeFi, including a separate lawsuit against Railgun DAO and Digital Currency Group over the $1.5B Bybit exploit.

Our Take: Terrorism creditors just proved they can attach stolen crypto inside DeFi governance and follow it across protocols. Any protocol holding exploited funds linked to a sanctioned state actor is now a potential target.

Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Posts Clean First Month

State of play: Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust completed its first month with zero net daily outflows, pulling in $194M in net inflows while rival funds bled hundreds of millions on back-to-back outflow days.

• MSBT launched April 8 with $30.6M in day-one inflows, placing it in the top 1% of all ETF launches per Bloomberg, on a day the broader spot bitcoin ETF market posted $94M in net outflows.

• On May 7, MSBT posted $5.7M in inflows while IBIT, FBTC, and ARKB all recorded outflows totaling over $150M combined.

• MSBT carries a 0.14% annual fee, the lowest among all US spot bitcoin ETFs, undercutting BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC at 0.25%.

• Nearly all first-month inflows came from self-directed clients, with Morgan Stanley’s 16,000 financial advisors and $9.3T advisory platform not yet fully opened to the fund.

• Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas projects MSBT could hit $5B in AUM within its first year once the advisor channel opens.

Our take: The zero-outflow streak is on self-directed clients alone. When 16,000 advisors managing $9.3T get full access, every other ETF issuer will feel it.

QUICK BITES

• Digital Asset eyes $300M raise at $2B valuation.

• Trump Media’s Q1 loss widens to $406M on BTC.

• Arbitrum’s $71M in ETH cleared for Aave transfer.

• Morgan Stanley’s BTC ETF absorbs $194M in first month.

• LayerZero issues public apology for Kelp DAO exploit response.

• Australia plans capital gains tax changes affecting crypto investors.

• South Korea crypto holdings halve in a year as investors turn to stock market.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Ridark’s read on 500 winning Polymarket wallets.

• Jason Rosenthal’s read on The New PMF Playbook.

• The Smart Ape’s read on Why ethereum L2s aren’t quantum safe.

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Good Morning

Coinbase’s second consecutive net loss landed this week alongside Kraken’s $600M push into Asian stablecoin infrastructure and JPMorgan calling the rotation from gold to bitcoin. The throughline is the same: spot trading is a shrinking business, and every major player knows it.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Coinbase Posts $394M Q1 Loss 👀

• Founders Highlight: Franklyn Wang of Liquid 👨

• Deal Flows: Kraken Acquires Reap for $600M 🐙

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

Coinbase Posts $394M Q1 Loss

State of play: Coinbase reported a $394M net loss in Q1 2026, its second consecutive quarterly loss, as falling crypto prices hammered both trading volumes and its balance sheet holdings.

• The exchange posted $1.41B in total revenue, down 31% year-on-year, with transaction revenue falling 40% to $756M.

• Coinbase lost $482M on crypto held for investment as Bitcoin dropped from $97K in January to under $70K by quarter-end.

• Adjusted EBITDA came in at $303M, down sharply from $930M in Q1 2025.

• CEO Brian Armstrong said the company is expanding beyond spot trading into derivatives, commodities, futures, and prediction markets to reduce retail trading dependence.

• Stablecoin revenue rose 11% to $305M, a rare bright spot, while the stock fell ~6% in after-hours trading to $182.

Why it matters: Coinbase is the clearest retail crypto proxy. Two consecutive net losses confirm spot-driven revenue is structurally fragile, not just cyclically weak.

Our take: Armstrong’s diversification pitch isn’t new. Until derivatives and prediction markets visibly shift the revenue mix, this is rebranding, not transformation.

For builders and investors: Stablecoin revenue grew 11% in a down quarter, the only line showing price-agnostic durability. That’s where the infrastructure bet is.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Franklyn Wang of Liquid

Intro: Franklyn Wang is the Founder and CEO of Liquid, a perpetual contract aggregation platform. It has since expanded its offerings to include multi-asset trading across stocks, forex, commodities, and prediction markets

Previous background: Before joining Liquid, Franklyn was a Quantitative Researcher on the Systematic Macro team at Two Sigma.

• He studied Math and Computer Science at Harvard, graduating in 2022 with a 4.0. His work sits at the intersection of theoretical CS, machine learning, and microeconomics.

The big idea: Franklyn wants to build a single 24/7 leveraged trading interface for everything: stocks, crypto, commodities, prediction markets, and private secondaries.

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INSIGHTS

JPMorgan: Bitcoin Replacing Gold as Hedge

JPMorgan analysts say bitcoin is displacing gold as the go-to debasement trade since the Iran conflict, with BTC ETFs posting a third straight month of inflows while gold ETFs are still bleeding.

• Bitcoin ETFs have seen inflows for three consecutive months in May, while gold ETFs have yet to recover outflows that began when the Iran conflict started in March.

• Institutional positioning is also rising, with JPMorgan’s CME bitcoin futures and offshore perps proxies hitting new highs.

• Strategy’s bitcoin purchases could reach $30B this year at its current pace, with ownership split nearly equally between retail and institutional investors.

DEAL FLOWS

Kraken Acquires Reap for $600M

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $150M+ in deals 💼

Kraken parent Payward is acquiring Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments firm Reap Technologies for $600M in cash and stock, marking its first infrastructure deal in Asia and implying a $20B valuation for Payward.

• Reap provides cross-border business payments infrastructure connecting traditional finance with digital assets, with a focus on stablecoin-powered settlement.

• The deal follows Payward’s $550M acquisition of US derivatives platform Bitnomial in April, its second major acquisition in under a month.

• Reap was founded by former Stripe Asia-Pacific lead Daren Guo and ex-investment banker Kevin Kang.

• Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said Asia is the fastest-growing market outside Europe by both revenue and assets on platform.

• Kraken is reportedly about 80% ready for an IPO, with expansion in both Asia and the US as stated priorities.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Elastics, $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Ekiden, $2M Seed Round

• Saturn Credit, $2M Seed Round

• Stockcoin.ai, Undisclosed $ Seed Round

• OnRe Finance, $5M Series A Round

• Astrocade, $56M Series A & B Round

• Fun, $72M Series A Round

• OpenTrade, $17M Strategic Round

• GSR, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Centrifuge, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• WooshPay, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Veera, $500K Public Token Sale

• Printr, $2M Public Token Sale

QUICK BITES

• Coinbase loses nearly $400M in Q1.

• Kalshi hits $22B valuation after $1B raise led by Coatue.

• Payward to acquire Hong Kong stablecoin firm Reap for $600M.

• Coinbase resumes trading after hours of AWS-linked disruption.

• South Korea tightens oversight of firms moving crypto overseas.

• JPMorgan says bitcoin is gaining over gold as debasement trade.

• Spot bitcoin ETFs post five-day inflow streak totaling nearly $1.7B.

• ECB’s Lagarde flags euro-denominated stablecoins as financial stability risk.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Kobeissi Letter’s read on Crypto Card Trend.

• Spencer’s read on Why Tokens Reward Buybacks and Equity Doesn’t.

• Smart Ape’s read on investigation of the dormant ethereum wallet drainer.

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Good Morning.

The down cycle is forcing crypto’s flagship firms to rewrite their own playbooks, with Coinbase gutting 14% of staff under an AI banner while Strategy quietly walks back Saylor’s “never sell” bitcoin doctrine to fund STRC dividends.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Coinbase Cuts 14% of Workforce 👀

• Case Study: Saylor Open to Selling Bitcoin 🔎

• Governance & Features: Securitize Launches Onchain Stocks on Solana 🚀

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WHAT MATTERS

Coinbase Cuts 14% of Workforce

State of play: Coinbase is laying off 700 employees, citing crypto market volatility and a push to rebuild itself as an “AI-native” company under thinner management layers.

• The restructuring will cost $50M to $60M in severance and termination expenses, hitting roughly 14% of its 5,000-person workforce.

• CEO Brian Armstrong said teams will shrink, with managers expected to oversee AI coding agents alongside human reports.

• Coinbase joins Block, Meta, and Microsoft in pinning recent headcount cuts on AI disruption rather than pure cost discipline.

Why it matters: Coinbase framing layoffs as an AI pivot rather than pure cost-cutting signals that even crypto-native firms now see headcount as a liability heading into the next cycle.

Our take: The “AI-native” framing is convenient cover for a company whose revenue is hostage to trading volumes that just rolled over. Armstrong is cutting because the tape is bad; AI is the press release.

For builders and investors: Expect more crypto firms to use the AI excuse to trim aggressively before earnings pressure hits, and watch whether Coinbase’s opex cuts hold once volumes recover.

CASE STUDY

Saylor Open to Selling Bitcoin

Strategy may sell BTC to fund STRC dividends, marking a sharp departure from Michael Saylor’s long-held “never sell” stance and reframing the firm as a yield-driven credit issuer.

• Saylor said Strategy “will probably” sell bitcoin to cover dividends on STRC, a perpetual preferred that has raised $8.5B since launch.

• The firm needs bitcoin to appreciate just 2.3% annually for existing holdings to cover STRC obligations indefinitely without touching common stock.

• Strategy holds 818,334 bitcoin worth roughly $66.5B and aims to double bitcoin-per-share within seven years via its “digital credit” strategy.

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INSIGHTS

Garlinghouse Warns on Crypto Bill Window

State of play: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the next two weeks will determine whether broad crypto market structure legislation passes, with midterm politics threatening to kill the bill if the Senate Banking Committee misses its markup.

• Garlinghouse said passage odds drop “precipitously” if the markup slips past the next few weeks and into midterm season.

• Senate Banking has stalled over stablecoin rewards, though a recent Alsobrooks-Tillis compromise could clear a path for markup this month.

• Trump-linked conflict of interest concerns and illicit finance objections remain unresolved sticking points alongside the election timing risk.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Securitize Launches Onchain Stocks on Solana

Securitize is rolling out fully regulated, non-synthetic tokenized equities on Solana, partnering with Jump Trading and Jupiter to deliver institutional liquidity and retail access within existing securities rules.

• Jump provides institutional liquidity via PropAMM while Jupiter handles retail and institutional access through its swap interface.

• Securitize covers the regulatory stack as a broker-dealer, transfer agent, and ATS, with the assets issued, traded, and settled onchain.

• The launch follows recent FINRA approval for tokenized IPO underwriting and partnerships with Computershare and the NYSE.

Other notable feature updates:

• Outcome Markets launches mainnet.

• TradeXYZ launches pre-IPO perpetuals.

• Circle Ventures purchased AAVE tokens.

• Polymarket is pushing several fixes after its April 28 upgrade.

• Arbitrum’s Snapshot temperature check to release frozen 30,765.67 ETH.

• Royco Dawn has added 7 tranched yield-bearing stablecoins ahead of launch.

QUICK BITES

• Strategy posts $12.5B Q1 loss.

• US spot bitcoin ETFs draw $532M.

• a16z crypto raises $2.2B for fifth fund.

• Coinbase cuts 14% of staff as it navigates downturn.

• Global crypto ETP inflow streak extends to five weeks.

• Securitize taps Jump &Jupiter as it rolls out fully onchain stocks.

• CFTC looks to cement non-custodial software developer protections.

• Kelp DAO ditches LayerZero for Chainlink’s cross-chain infrastructure.

• Crypto whale sues Coinbase for allegedly refusing to return stolen DAI.

• Strategy likely to sell BTC to cover STRC dividends, Michael Saylor says.

• Brad Garlinghouse warns next two weeks are critical for crypto legislation.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• a16z crypto’s read on its new $2.2B crypto fund.

• James’s read on Stripe Is Trying to Make Crypto Disappear.

• Kelp’s read on Setting the Record Straight Around the LayerZero Bridge Hack.

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Good Morning,

Tether’s Q1 attestation lands with $1.04B in profit and $141B in US Treasury exposure, putting the stablecoin issuer alongside sovereign nations as a structural source of dollar demand. Coinbase and Superstate are leaning into the same institutional pull with CUSHY, a tokenized stablecoin credit fund launching on FundOS in Q2.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: Tether Posts $1B Q1 Profit, Reserves Hit Record 👀

• Product of the Week: Coinbase Launches CUSHY Stablecoin Yield Fund 🪙

• Charts: CoinShares’s $7.4B AUM, Polymarket & Kalshi Cross $150B Volume 📊

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WHAT MATTERS

Tether Posts $1B Q1 Profit, Reserves Hit Record

State of play: Tether’s Q1 attestation showed $1.04B in net profit and a record $8.23B excess reserve buffer, though the pace trails last year’s $10B+ annual run rate.

• US Treasury exposure stands at ~$141B, ranking Tether alongside Saudi Arabia and South Korea among the top 20 sovereign-scale holders.

• Reserves also include roughly $20B in gold and $7B in bitcoin, framed as macro hedges rather than core liquidity.

• Total assets reached $191.7B against $183.5B in liabilities, with $183.4B tied to issued USDT.

• USDT supply held steady through Q1 at ~$183B, then added more than 5B tokens in April per CEO Paolo Ardoino.

• Proprietary investments via Tether Investments sit outside reserves, funded entirely from retained profits.

Why it matters: Tether’s Treasury book now rivals mid-sized sovereigns, making USDT a structural source of US dollar demand rather than just a crypto settlement layer.

Our take: Profit is slowing but the franchise is still printing money on float, and the gold and bitcoin allocations are a hedge against a world where Tether’s own dollar exposure becomes a political liability.

For builders and investors: Watch reserve composition as much as supply growth, since any shift away from T-bills toward macro hedges signals how Tether is positioning for regulatory and FX risk.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Coinbase Launches CUSHY Stablecoin Yield Fund

Coinbase and Superstate plan to launch CUSHY in Q2, a stablecoin credit fund offering institutions tokenized exposure to lending and private credit yield.

• The fund will be the first third-party issuance on Superstate’s FundOS platform, which previously launched USTB and USCC with over $1B combined AUM.

• Tokenized shares will be issued on Solana, Ethereum, and soon Base, usable as collateral or transferable across compliant digital venues 24/7.

• Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services will administer CUSHY via the Omnium platform, with Apollo named among supporting partners.

• The strategy generates yield by lending stablecoins and deploying into unspecified private credit opportunities.

• It follows Coinbase’s USCBYF bitcoin yield fund, which tapped Apex Group last month for a tokenized share class on Base.

Other cool products:

• Outcome Markets launches mainnet.

• TradeXYZ launches pre-IPO perpetuals.

• Circle Ventures purchased AAVE tokens.

• Strata launched the Saturn Credit market.

• Arbitrum’s Snapshot temperature check to release 30,765.67 ETH is live.

• Royco Dawn has added 7 tranched yield-bearing stablecoins ahead of launch.

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CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Polymarket and Kalshi Cross $150B Lifetime Volume

State of play: Combined lifetime volume on Polymarket and Kalshi crossed $150B in April, even as monthly trading volume broke a seven-month record-setting streak with its first decline since September.

• Polymarket’s active traders fell to ~643K from 733K in March, ending another seven-month growth streak alongside drops in dollar and notional volume.

• The pullback came from Polymarket’s global platform, while its US subsidiary and Kalshi continued to grow.

• Kalshi raised at a $22B valuation in March, with Polymarket reportedly targeting $15B in its next round.

• The CFTC under new leadership is actively defending the sector, suing five states attempting to block event contracts under gaming laws.

• Both firms are tightening insider trading controls as scrutiny intensifies, with Kalshi’s sports contracts drawing the sharpest state-level pushback.

Our Take: The dip is a Polymarket-specific story, with global activity migrating to its US subsidiary as the platform restructures for CFTC compliance. Kalshi grew through the same window.

CoinShares Reports $7.4B AUM in First US Filing

State of play: CoinShares posted $165.7M in 2025 revenue and $7.4B in gross AUM in its first annual report as a Nasdaq-listed company, following its $1.2B SPAC merger with Vine Hill.

• Asset management revenue rose 13% to $126.4M, with the Physical fund ranking as the top digital asset ETP by net inflows in 2025.

• Net income fell to $114.3M from $162.4M, mostly due to a one-time $36.8M FTX claim gain in 2024 and lower ETP pricing differentials.

• Capital markets revenue dropped to $73.1M from $82.7M, though underlying performance ex-non-operational items grew 6.9% on staking, lending, and trading gains.

• The firm holds both MiFID and MiCA authorizations, one of few asset managers cleared to run passive ETPs and active strategies across Europe.

• Operating expenses fell 2.9% to $70.7M, with $481.3M in available capital including $176.7M in liquid assets.

Our take: The Nasdaq listing is the real story, giving CoinShares a US currency to compete with Bitwise and Grayscale as institutional ETP flows consolidate.

QUICK BITES

• New York AG settles for $5M with Uphold.

• BlackRock urges OCC to drop tokenized reserve cap idea.

• Kraken parent Payward completes Bitnomial acquisition.

• Coinbase says deal reached on Clarity Act stablecoin yield.

• European crypto asset manager CoinShares records $7.4B AUM.

• Tether posts over $1B Q1 profit as reserve buffer reaches record $8.2B.

• Polymarket & Kalshi’s combined lifetime volumes hit $150B in April.

• Strategy pauses weekly bitcoin purchases ahead of Q1 earnings release.

• A16z backs CFTC, says state-by-state rules on prediction markets create barrier.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Ridark’s read on 500 winning Polymarket wallets.

• Jason Rosenthal’s read on The New PMF Playbook.

• The Smart Ape’s read on Why ethereum L2s aren’t quantum safe.

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Good Morning

MegaETH’s MEGA token went live Thursday after the network cleared its first performance milestone, kicking off the first real test of KPI-gated unlocks at scale. With 53.3% of supply tied to onchain KPIs rather than a vesting calendar, the launch puts a new alignment model in front of the market.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: MegaETH’s MEGA Token Goes Live 👀

• Founders Highlight: Fed of Printr 👨

• Deal Flows: Tether Leads Belo’s $14M Series A 💰️

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

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WHAT MATTERS

MegaETH’s MEGA Token Goes Live

State of play: MegaETH’s MEGA token launched Thursday, closing a seven-day countdown that began after the Ethereum scaling network hit its first performance milestone.

• The countdown triggered last week when 10 “Mega Mafia” apps cleared the first KPI tied to activity around USDM, the protocol’s Ethena-co-developed stablecoin.

• 53.3% of MEGA’s fixed 10B supply is linked to performance-based KPIs rather than standard time-based vesting, an unusual release structure.

• USDM circulation jumped from $62.9M last week to over $300M during the TGE, still well short of the $500M native stablecoin target.

• Binance, KuCoin, and Bitget opened MEGA spot trading at 11:00 UTC, with Binance applying a seed tag to its listing.

• The MegaETH Foundation has said it will use USDM revenue to accumulate MEGA, hardwiring network usage into token demand.

Why it matters: MEGA is the first major test of KPI-gated token unlocks at scale, a model that could reshape how L2s align supply with actual usage instead of arbitrary cliffs.

Our take: It’s less a market test than a curated one, and the real question is whether USDM growth reflects organic demand or foundation-engineered flywheel mechanics.

For builders and investors: We should watch USDM supply and KPI disclosures closely, since unlock pace, not price action, will dictate MEGA’s float over the next year.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Fed of Printr

Intro: Fed is the Founder of Printr, a cross-chain memecoin launchpad.

• Fed just stepped down from his position as the CEO of Printr recently after the controversy related to $FAX.

Previous background: There’s no available information on Fed’s background.

The big idea: Fed argues that token creation should work like cloud infrastructure, every economic parameter (starting price, supply, liquidity depth, fee routing, graduation market cap) is configurable, no-code, and deployable across 8+ chains in minutes.

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INSIGHTS

North Korea Drives 76% of 2026 Crypto Hack Losses

TRM Labs says North Korean actors stole ~577M across two April exploits, accounting for 76% of all crypto hack losses in 2026 and pushing cumulative DPRK-attributed theft past $6B since 2017.

• The $292M KelpDAO and $285M Drift Protocol attacks made up just 3% of incident count but drove the vast majority of losses.

• Drift’s attackers spent months socially engineering employees before deploying 31 pre-signed withdrawals that drained funds in 12 minutes on April 1.

• KelpDAO’s breach exploited a single-verifier LayerZero bridge design, with attackers draining ~116,500 rsETH by compromising RPC nodes.

• North Korea’s share of global hack losses has climbed from under 10% in 2020-2021 to 64% in 2025 and 76% so far in 2026.

• Laundering paths are diverging: Drift funds sit dormant on Ethereum awaiting a structured cashout, while KelpDAO proceeds moved fast through THORChain via Chinese intermediaries.

DEAL FLOWS

Tether Leads Belo’s $14M Series A

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $280M+ in deals 💼

Argentina-based digital wallet Belo raised $14M in a Series A led by Tether to scale stablecoin-powered payments across Latin America.

• Belo combines local currency, digital dollars, FX and cross-border transfers in a single app, with crypto rails running behind the scenes.

• The company has crossed 3M users since launching in Buenos Aires in 2021 and says it has run profitably for three years.

• Funds will support expansion into Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay, plus a deeper push into Brazil’s freelancer and remote-worker segment.

• Titan Fund, The Venture City, Mindset Ventures and G2 joined Tether in the round.

• Tether’s lead signals a broader strategy to embed USDT in Latin American payment flows, where dollar demand and inflation hedging are structural.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Robin Markets, $475K Angel Round

• Kaisar Network, $4M Pre-Seed Round

• Legend Trade, $3.5M Seed Round

• Nuva Labs, $5.2M Seed Round

• Belo, $14M Series A Round

• Liquid, $18M Series A Round

• Blockworks, $192M Series A Round

• Four Pillars, Undisclosed $ Series A Round

• Squads, $18M Strategic Round

• Fere AI, $1.3M Unknown Round

• Fence, $20M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• MegaETH token goes live.

• Crypto market structure bill nears May push.

• Polymarket taps Chainalysis to police insider trading.

• North Korea accounts for 76% of 2026 crypto hack losses.

• Crypto hacks hit record high in April as exploits kept piling up.

• Senate moves to ban themselves from prediction market trading.

• SBI Holdings in talks to acquire stake in crypto exchange Bitbank.

• Tether posts over $1B Q1 profit as reserve buffer reaches record $8.2B.

• Arbitrum DAO starts vote to release 30,766 frozen ETH to DeFi United.

• Brazil central bank prohibits crypto use in regulated cross-border payments.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Kobeissi Letter’s read on Crypto Card Trend.

• Spencer’s read on Why Tokens Reward Buybacks and Equity Doesn’t.

• Smart Ape’s read on investigation of the dormant ethereum wallet drainer.

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Good Morning.

DeFi just pulled off its biggest rescue mission yet: a coalition led by Aave is mobilizing over $300M to make rsETH holders whole after the $292M Kelp DAO exploit, and the playbook for how the industry handles nation-state attacks is being written in real time.

Check out our latest podcast episode!

In Today’s Email:

• What Matters: DeFi United Plans rsETH Restoration 👀

• Case Study: How to Farm MegaETH’s $40M Drop 🪂

• Governance & Features: Pump.fun Burns $370M 🔥

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Dexu AI: Get the Signal First

Dexu AI is an AI-powered Web3 analytics platform that quantifies the attention economy across major social media platforms and market metrics.

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—————

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WHAT MATTERS

DeFi United Plans rsETH Restoration

State of play: A coalition of DeFi protocols led by Aave has unveiled a technical plan to fully restore rsETH backing after the $292M Kelp DAO exploit attributed to Lazarus Group.

• DeFi United raised over $300M in ETH commitments and will convert it into rsETH in tranches before transferring to the affected lockbox contract.

• The plan includes a controlled liquidation of eight attacker-controlled positions on Aave to recover ~13,000 ETH, with Compound expected to follow for another 16,776 ETH.

• Execution depends on governance approvals and final agreements, with risks including potential attacker interference and untested post-exploit security measures on LayerZero and Kelp DAO.

Why it matters: This is the largest coordinated DeFi bailout to date, setting a precedent for how the industry absorbs nation-state attacks without socializing losses to end users.

Our take: The optics of a multi-protocol rescue are reassuring, but the deeper signal is that DeFi’s interconnected collateral graph keeps producing single points of failure that require manual, governance-heavy cleanup every time something breaks.

For builders and investors: LRT bridges are now a proven attack surface, and any protocol accepting restaked collateral should treat oracle manipulation as part of the base threat model.

CASE STUDY

How to Farm MegaETH’s $40M Drop

MegaETH’s 8-week Terminal season is live, distributing 2.5% of $MEGA supply to users who rack up points by using featured apps, joining clans, and applying weekly boosters.

• Set up at terminal.megaeth.com, bridge funds via rabbithole.megaeth.com, and join a clan like BadBunnz, WCNetizens, or Meganacci to stack pledges.

• The safest play is providing USDm/USDT0 liquidity on Kumbaya, MegaETH’s main DEX, which can sit untouched for the full 8 weeks.

• Higher-variance options include HitOne perps, Monster and Nextrare card packs, Topstrike fantasy football, and ITS trading card boosters where pack prices rise with each purchase.

• Megamafia accelerator apps PrismFi, Cap (cUSD yield), and World Markets offer additional farming surface beyond the week-one featured set.

• Holding MegaETH NFTs like Bad Bunnz, Nacci Cartel, or WCNetizens unlocks farming bonuses and clan utility, with floor prices already up sharply since March.

Read the full article on how to farm MEGA by wale.moca here

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INSIGHTS

Strategy’s STRC Could Fuel Bitcoin Rally

State of play: Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says Bitcoin’s 20% rebound off February lows can extend further as Strategy keeps tapping its STRC perpetual preferred stock to fund new BTC buys.

• Bitcoin trades around $76,173 after recovering from sub-$65,000 levels in February, with ETFs adding $3.8B since March 1 and long-term holders re-accumulating.

• Strategy has been the single biggest driver, adding $7.2B in BTC over the past eight weeks and now holding 818,334 BTC after last week’s $255M purchase.

• STRC’s 11.5% yield looks attractive against sub-7% junk bonds, and Hougan expects Strategy to raise billions more through the instrument to keep buying.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Pump.fun Burns $370M, Commits 50% Revenue

Pump.fun burned $370M in PUMP tokens and launched a programmatic buyback-and-burn program funded by 50% of net revenue from the bonding curve, PumpSwap, and Terminal for one year.

• The burned tokens represent 36% of PUMP’s circulating supply, with the buyback now hardcoded into an irreversible locked smart contract.

• The remaining 50% of revenue will fund hiring, marketing, and “big bets” over a 5 to 10 year horizon as co-founder Alon Cohen positions Pump beyond memecoins into a broader tokenization platform.

• PUMP rose 7.1% in 24 hours to $0.0019, while Pump has generated nearly $150M in revenue this year after crossing $1B cumulative last month.

Other notable feature updates:

• Catalysis launched on mainnet.

• Zest Protocol is launching mainnet soon.

• Upshift partnered with Securitize Fund Services.

• MegaETH has set its MEGA token launch for April 30.

• Base announced its first independent network upgrade.

• Arkham launched decentralized trading on its platform.

• Solana Foundation lent USDT to Aave to support its recovery efforts.

QUICK BITES

• Galaxy posts $216M Q1 loss.

• Canada moves to ban crypto ATMs.

• Pump.fun burns $370M in PUMP token.

• Bitcoin ETF outflows snap nine-day streak.

• Polymarket eyes return of main exchange to the US.

• Robinhood’s crypto revenue and volume fall nearly 50%.

• Strategy-fueled bitcoin rally could last ‘for some time to come.’

• US court sentences Cartier descendant to 8 years in $470M crypto case.

• DeFi United unveils plan to restore rsETH after $292M Kelp DAO exploit.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Wale.moca’s read on How to Farm MEGA.

• a16z’s read on The New Stack for Global Finance.

• Stacy’s read on Why All RWA Yield Flows Into Pendle.

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