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Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Bitcoin ETFs continue to break records across all of finance, The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is pro crypto with new legislation, crypto exchange Kraken is launching its own blockchain, North Korean hackers are causing havoc, and more.

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Happy Friday, let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Market Snapshots

• Solana has surpassed Ethereum and all other chains in 24-hour DEX volume sending the entire space into a frenzy

• Solana's market cap dominance is also approaching all-time highs at 3.70%

• Uniswap's UNI and bitcoin cash BCH are leading the charge in big cap, each gaining more than 5% in the past 24 hours

• Ethereum continues to struggle and underperforms bitcoin and the broader market by gaining just 1.1% in the past 24 hours and touches a new 3.5 year low relative to the price of BTC

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

• BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF is the most successful new ETF in four years (BM)

• Dubbed the ‘Trump Whale’, Polymarket identifies $45M bet on Donald Trump was made by a French national (BBG)

• Intel-backed blockchain startup R3 is weighing strategic options including a sale (BBG) 

• Tether is seeking to tokenize Turkey’s borate market (yes the chemical element) using blockchain as it expands into commodities (BBG) 

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs will soon hold 1M tokens, nearly as much as Satoshi Nakamoto (CD) 

• Coinbase was named the official partner of the Canadian Football League (FM)

• Hacken’s community-driven DeFi security flash pool sale sold out within 11 minutes (CN)

• Solana generated some $8.7M in economic value from network activity, recording-breaking fee revenue (CT)

• MicroStrategy stock hits highest price since Bitcoin buying spree began (DC)

• Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins agreed to a deal with Walgreens to sell its physical toys in 2,000 US stores (TD)

• Polymarket claims to have identified the ‘Trump whale’ (CT)

• Web3 game ‘MetalCore’ ditches Ethereum and Immutable for Solana (DC)

• TeraWulf to raise $350M in convertible notes for share repurchase (CT)

• Cardano unlocks $1.3T Bitcoin liquidity with BitcoinOS bridge integration (CT)

• El Salvador president Nayid Bukele donates 2 bitcoin towards building 1,000 schools in Honduras (CS)

• Bitunix Exchange opened crypto purchases to VISA, Mastercard, and Apple Pay providers (CS)

A Message from Gemini

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M&A Announcements

• Blockworks, a crypto media platform, acquires The Drop, a web3 newsletter and social media brand (BW)

Launches

• Crypto exchange Kraken plans to launch its own blockchain for decentralized applications that allow for trading, borrowing, and lending of tokens (BBG)  

• GnosisDAO is launching a new $40M venture fund targeting real-world assets, crypto infrastructure, and payments (TB)

• Chainlink expanded to Bitcoin for the first time by integrating with Bitcoin Layer 2 network Spiderchain (BS)

• Binance will expand its trading offerings to include a new Ethereum layer-2 altcoin (DH) 

• Digital assets management platform Fireblocks launched a $1M grant program for companies building blockchain-based projects on PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD (CT)

Venture Capital

• Party Icons, a crypto gaming platform, raised $9M in a seed round from Bitkraft Ventures (TB)

• Skyfire, an AI payment platform, raised their total funding to $9.5M with the help from new capital from Coinbase Ventures and a16z’s CSX (TB)

• Bluesky, a Social media platform, raised $15M in a Series A funding round led by a crypto-focused VC Blockchain Capital (DC)

Regulation

• A US lawmaker claimed that crypto PACs were forcing out important voices in Congress (CT) 

• The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a pro-crypto regulatory framework (CT)

Cybersecurity

• A mysterious wallet is front running Truth Terminal’s memecoin shill (DF)

• Solana meme coin Sharpei plunges 96% in seconds in epic rug pull (DC)

• Online crypto investigator ZachXBT exposes Chinese OTC trader’s role in North Korea’s Lazarus Hacks (CN)

• The hacker responsible for the recent hack of DeFi protocol Radiant Capital transferred nearly $52M of stolen assets to the Ethereum network (NS)

• North Korean hackers from Lazarus Group exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome to target crypto investors with a fake NFT game (HR)

• A US government crypto wallet holding seized assets was drained of $20M via suspicious transfers (DC)

Chart of the Day

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