Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Punks lead the NFT surge, SOL flips BNB again in the market cap wars, Poseiden raises a large round, the public clash between President Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell continues to brew, ETH hits a new block gas limit, a massive bank partners with Coinbase, Telegram launches a crypto wallet, and so much more

Happy Wednesday - Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Investors are still in wait-and-see mode amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s August 1st tariff deadline looms

  • Most large-cap crypto assets are flat or slightly down over the past 24 hours

• Bitcoin held steady around $119,000, trading within a tight range, while Ethereum dipped slightly to $3,650 after strong recent gains, both continuing to consolidate after a bullish month

• Solana led alt coins and surged past $200, outperforming the market on increased DeFi ecosystem traction

Market Predictions

• Bettors on Kalshi are predicting if Trump will say GENIUS Act, Nuclear, or NVIDIA at the “Winning the AI Race” event

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi

• Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100

Headline Roundup
^{_{The major headlines driving crypto markets}}

• FBI halts investigation into Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell (DC)

• Citadel says it has concerns about tokenized assets siphoning liquidity away from traditional markets (TB)

• Scott Bessent says Powell doesn’t need to resign but should conduct internal review (CNBC)

• The SEX approved the conversion of Bitwise's cryptocurrency index fund, but then quickly hit pause (TB)

• PNC Bank partners with Coinbase to launch Bitcoin and crypto services (BM)

• Four people in London were convicted for kidnapping a Belgian barber after he boasted online about a crypto fortune he didn’t actually have (DC)

• The total stablecoin market cap recently surpassed $250B and now stands at around $261B (TD)

• Western Union joins a growing list of firms exploring stablecoins (DC)

• Galaxy Digital claims Futarchy Model can give DAOs ‘stronger chance of success’ (TD)

• SpaceX shifts $153M in Bitcoin in first move since 2022 (TD)

• PUMP token has dropped 45% from its all-time high, and is now trading lower than its initial coin offering valuation (DC)

• Solana flips BNB and became the fifth-largest cryptocurrency again (TD)

• Canadian Bitcoin miner Bitfarms stock soars after announcing a stock buyback program (DC)

• CryptoPunks is leading the charge as Ethereum-based NFTs rally on the back of ETH’s strong price performance (TD)

• 21Shares has filed for an exchange-traded product tracking ONDO (TB)

• Analysts at Compass Point downgraded shares of Circle (CRCL) to a "sell" rating (DC)

• Ethereum hits 45 million block gas limit in latest scaling move (TB)

Venture Capital

• Mercurity Fintech said it has secured a $200M equity line of credit from Solana Ventures to build a Solana-based digital asset treasury (TD)

• Poseidon has raised a $15M seed round led by a16z crypto

M&A Announcements

• UK-based Archax completes its acquisition of Deutsche Digital Assets (DDA), a German crypto ETP manager (AI)

Launches

• Telegram’s launches the 'TON Wallet' crypto wallet in the US (TC)

• Coinbase launches CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for US traders (TB)

• Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has launched a new Stock Futures product, offering zero trading fees and zero funding fees for stock trading (TD)

• Fogo launches public testnet of high-speed Layer 1 SVM chain for onchain trading (TB)

Regulation

• Coinbase UK boss says country has ‘second mover advantage’ for crypto regulation (FN)

• Web3 firm Hashed Emergent has proposed a new model law, the “COINS Act,” for crypto in India (CR)

Cybersecurity

• US seeks to recover $7.1M in crypto tied to oil and gas fraud scheme (TB)

• At least 3,500 websites are running a hidden Monero mining script delivered through a malicious injection chain (DC)

Extra Reads

• A public clash between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is brewing - Can Trump Fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell? And What Does That Mean For Crypto?

• Pump.fun has generated $774M in revenue, raised $600M in 12 minutes, and created almost 12M tokens on Solana - Inside the business of the Solana meme coin factory Pump.Fun

Chart of the Day

“Bitcoin is at all-time highs and 2x early last cycle… but exchange volumes are half of peak mania. $72B daily avg now vs $160B+ back then.” Source: @fintechfrank

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