Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Kraken is at war with PayPal, the never ending Ripple lawsuit takes another turn, a Bitcoin mining company switches its holdings to ETH, a company in the UAE invests $100M into Trump’s crypto company, tokenized stock trading is right around the corner, and so much more

Happy Friday! Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin traded in a tight range just above $107,000 on Thursday

  • A significant options expiry on derivatives exchange Deribit is set for Friday, with 38% of BTC options contracts expiring and a max pain price of $102,000

  • BTC options open interest stands at $40B

• Some crypto stocks posted gains, highlighted by Core Scientific's +33% increase following acquisition rumors by AI Hyperscaler CoreWeave

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

• Kraken debuts payment app 'Krak' to rival Venmo and PayPal for crypto payments (TB)

• Coinbase surges to highest price since 2021 Nasdaq debut, completing full circle (CD)

• GameStop’s $2.7B total raise positions it for potential Bitcoin treasury expansion - the strategy breakdown here

• The Lingerie Fighting Championships (you read that correctly) to add $2M Bitcoin to treasury ahead of UK expansion (CD)

• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says "we’re buying more Bitcoin every week" - full satements here

• Wall Street poured over $1B into Bitcoin ETFs this week amid rising bets on Fed rate cuts and a weakening US dollar (CD)

• Coinbase adds Cardano, Litecoin, Base to platform as it joins Doge and XRP (DE)

• Bakkt Holdings plans to sell up to $1B in securities to provide fresh capital for a possible expansion of its corporate treasury to include Bitcoin (DC)

• Ripple lawsuit with SEC takes another turn - Ripple accused of delaying XRP lawsuit as SEC seeks relief (BN)

• Dinari, a platform that offers tokenized stock trading, is the first to secure U.S. approval to offer the blockchain-based financial instruments (TB)

• Nasdaq-listed Bit Digital exits Bitcoin mining, converts 417 BTC to 24,434 ETH (TD)

• Avalanche crypto game Raini Lords Light shutting down operations (DE)

• ASIC forms panel to probe ASX’s failed blockchain project tracking issues (DE)

• Russia’s central bank delays CBDC launch to 2026 amid planning concerns (TD)

• CoreWeave makes another bid to acquire Bitcoin miner Core Scientific, says WSJ (TB)

• Chinese brokerages’ stock surges after obtaining Hong Kong crypto license (TB)

• Solana-based treasury firm Upexi sees share price tumble after market shift (FO)

• Taurus releases open‑source privacy tools for stablecoins starting with USDC (CD)

• Ex‑Blackstone Tether execs seek $1B to build multi‑token crypto treasury, says Bloomberg (CD)

• Barbadian Gabriel Abed appointed Vice Chairman in billion-dollar crypto venture (ST)

Venture Capital

• UAE company Aqua‑1 Foundation invests $100M in Trump family-backed crypto business World Liberty Financial amid influence concerns(CT)

• Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy raises a $175M venture fund to scale crypto investments (TB)

• Castle, a bitcoin treasury platform, raises $1M to bring automated Bitcoin treasury solutions to SMBs and was led by Boost VC, Winklevoss Capital, Park Rangers Capital, Epoch VC, and others(BM)

Launches

• Coinbase to launch U.S. Nano Bitcoin perpetual-style futures in July (BM)

• Private equity tokenization platfrom Jarsy launches out of stealth with pre-seed backing from Breyer Capital (TB)

Regulation

• Hong Kong unveils new crypto policy statement to enhance regulatory clarity (TB)

• Kenya moves closer to crypto regulation as MPs back joint oversight of digital asset sector (EV)

• India to issue crypto discussion paper in July, stablecoins in focus (CT)

Cybersecurity

• FBI busts IntelBroker on BreachForums in $25M BTC sting operation (CT)

• StarkNet-based ZKLend shuts down following fallout from $10M exploit (TD)

• Hacker drains $9.6M from DeFi stablecoin protocol ReSupply (DE)

• UEX overhauls security with Tier‑IV grid and proprietary protocols (CT)

Extra Reads

• Kalshi raises $185M in latest funding round, hitting $2B valuation - Here’s why it commanded such a massive raise
  

• Tahini’s, a Canadian fast-casual chain, embraced Bitcoin in 2020, leveraging it to compete with giants like McDonald’s - How a Family Chain Outsmarted Inflation

• Bitcoin briefly dipped below $100,000 on Monday after Iran launched attacks on US military bases in Qatar - 3 reasons why Bitcoin price could fall below $100,000

Chart of the Day

As of Wednesday, these ETFs held 1.234 million BTC, up by more than 9,722 BTC over the past three days, according to Glassnode data. That amounts to roughly $1.04B in net inflows so far this week (CT)

Meme Dump

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