Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: US seeks forfeiture of $14B BTC in biggest seizure ever, Japanese regulator eyes ban on crypto insider trading, Tether pays $300M to close bankruptcy dispute with failed crypto lender Celsius, Elon Musk praises Bitcoin's energy foundation, NYC Mayor Eric Adams signs executive order to establish the Office of Digital Assets, and so much more

Happy Wednesday - Let’s dive in.

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Market Snapshot

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• The crypto market is facing a broad pullback, with Bitcoin testing a critical support level

  • BTC is trading around $110,800, down -3.4%, while ETH has fallen -4.5% to below $4,000

  • Spot BTC and ETH ETFs saw combined outflows of more than $755M

• Total crypto market cap drops -4.4% over the past 24 hours to $3.85T

Market Predictions

• Bettors on Kalshi are predicting will a new country buy Bitcoin this year?

• 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}}

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says the firm is working on its own tokenization tech (DC)

• Elon Musk praises Bitcoin's energy foundation after criticizing crypto's power consumption (DC)

• US government now holds $36B Bitcoin following DOJ seizure of 127,271 BTC (TB)

• Activist Laura Loomer claims there’s a “massive and well-funded” effort to persuade President Trump to pardon SBF - see the post here

• Binance hands out another $400M to traders and users affected by recent liquidations (DC)

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams signs executive order to establish the Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology (DC)

• California Governor signs law protecting unclaimed crypto from forced liquidation (DC)

• Citi CEO says tokenized deposits will power the future of digital payments (CD)

• US moves to drop Bitcoin advocate Roger Ver’s tax case with $50M deal (CT)

• Tether pays $300M to close bankruptcy dispute with failed crypto lender Celsius (CD)

• BNB Chain sees user activity transactions up 151% in 30 days (CT)

• BlackRock's IBIT records $134M inflows over the past two trading days (CD)

• Class action alleges Microsoft choked AI supply to lift ChatGPT costs (DC)

• Kalshi and Polymarket record $1.4B trading month (TB)

• Frozen $200K Binance donation for cancer patients in Malta now worth $37M (CT)

• Metaplanet’s mNAV drops below 1 for the first time (TB)

• Binance faces backlash after alleged token listing demands are exposed (BL)

• Circle and Safe unveil a partnership to make USDC the default asset for on-chain treasury operations (BW)

• Mysterious Hyperliquid trader puts down half a billion on a Bitcoin short at 10x leverage (CT)

• Prestige Wealth purchases $134M worth of XAUT, the first treasury composed of Tether Gold (TB)

• Ethena’s synthetic dollar sheds $2B in market cap after losings its dollar peg on Binance (CS)

• Solmate Infrastructure purchases $50M worth of SOL from the Solana Foundation (TB)

• Societe Generale and crypto exchange Bitpanda partner bringing regulated stablecoins to DeFi (CD)

• Privy experiences "partial outage" as Monad opens airdrop claims (TB)

• Bitfarms appoints Jonathan Mir as CFO (TB)

Venture Capital

• Former Aptos CEO Mo Shaikh launches Maximum Frequency Ventures with an inaugural $50M to invest in crypto projects (TB)

• Tria, a crypto platform, raises $12M in pre-seed and strategic funding led by P2 Ventures, Aptos, and more (CD)

• Bittensor treasury firm TAO Synergies secures $11M in private financing, with participation from the company's existing investors (TB)

• Crown, a São Paulo–based fintech, raises $8.1M in seed funding to launch a stablecoin, led by Framework Ventures, Valor Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, and more (BW)

M&A Announcements

• South Korean authorities resume review of Binance’s acquisition of local exchange Gopax after two year stall (TB)

Launches

• S&P Global partners with Chainlink to launch on-chain stablecoin risk assessments (BW)

• CME Group launches options trading on SOL and XRP futures (FM)

• Metamask partners with Polymarket to integrate prediction market trading (TD)

• Layer-1 network Monad unveils early claim portal for its upcoming airdrop (DC)

• Stripe adds stablecoin support for recurring subscription payments (BL)

• Myriad launches new perpetual sentiment markets (DC)

• Figure launches its yield-bearing security token on the Sui blockchain (TB)

• Ethereum devs launch the second test of the Fusaka upgrade on Sepolia (CD)

• WisdomTree launches a physically backed stellar lumens ETP in Europe (CD)

• Crypto asset manager Algoz to launch a Cayman Islands-based fund (FM)

• Enso Network activates mainnet and launches on ETH and BNB (TB)

• Bybit launches Argentina-exclusive fiat ARS campaign (CD)

• RootstockLabs launches initiative to expand access to Bitcoin-native DeFi (BW)

• Crypto app Cake Wallet announces the integration of xStocks to its tokens (BM)

Regulation

• France approves operating rules for the country's first exchange built on blockchain (FM)

• Republican bill aims to make Trump's crypto 401K order federal law (DC)

• Japanese regulator eyes ban on crypto insider trading (DC)

• Russia’s central bank considers tokenizing Russian stocks for foreigners (TD)

• UK moves to allow asset managers to use blockchain for fund tokenization (CT)

• Stripe’s stablecoin unit applies for a bank charter with the US OCC (BW)

• FCA releases plans to support tokenization in asset management (FM)

• Senate Democrats submit counterproposal to crypto framework bill (CT)

• Bhutan to anchor national digital ID on Ethereum by early 2026 (DC)

• Kenya passes bill to establish crypto frameworks (DC)

Cybersecurity

• US seeks forfeiture of $14B BTC tied to a "pig butchering" scam in biggest seizure ever (DC)

• Research findings show half of GEO satellite downlinks carry data without encryption (CS)

• Android vulnerability enables malicious applications that could expose wallet seed phrases (CT)

• Monad co-founder flags Telegram ad scam ahead of airdrop (CT)

• WinterMist team recovers millions lost in crypto fraud (CD)

Extra Reads

• Bitcoin is sailing into calmer waters following last week’s tumultuous event, but options data indicates limited upside, as implied volatility drops following the crash - Here’s why Bitcoin's upside momentarily may be capped

• DCA is a trading strategy that uses automated, small, regular buys to stay invested without trying to time every move - Here’s how dollar-cost averaging works in crypto

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin’s correlation with gold climbs above 0.85

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot advisers LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks including the risk of the loss of principal. Performance doesn’t include fees. See more here.