Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Crypto adoption is accelerating in Africa, Ledger goes mobile, the SEC delays a key crypto trust decision, Bubblemaps flags suspicious $170M airdrop activity, and Pokémon-themed NFTs are seeing fresh demand.

It’s almost Friday - Let’s dive in

Market Snapshot

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• Total crypto market cap is hovering around the $4T mark, up nearly +1%, with investors digesting part of this week’s U.S. inflation data

  • BTC is trading at about $114,200, up +1.2% over the past 24 hours and almost +3% on the week

  • ETH is trading at $4,430, up just under +2% on the daily and weekly timeframes

  • SOL continues to lead gains, up +3.3% and more than +7.6% over the past week, trading at almost $224

  • XRP is holding steady over $3 and remains up a solid +6% on the week 

  • BNB is also a top performer among large caps, gaining +3% in the past 24 hours to break over $900

• Long-term on-chain trends show short-term turbulence occurring after Fed rate cuts, then longer-term upside

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

• SEC chair Paul Atkins says that “most crypto tokens are not securities” - see full statements here

• CFTC Chair nominee releases screenshots of purported Signal messages with Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss  (DC)

• Binance and Franklin Templeton are working together to release digital asset products (DC)

• A lawsuit against Bitcoin treasury Strategy has been scrapped (DC)

• Sub-Saharan Africa is the third-fastest growing region for crypto adoption (CT)

• Binance.US cuts fees to near zero on more than 20 assets (TB)

• An Indian Union Minister discloses crypto gains for a second year (DC)

• Ethereum staking exit queue surpasses 2M ETH (CS)

• Polygon resolves finality issue that caused its PoS network to experience a delay (TB)

• POP Culture Group launches strategic Bitcoin reserve and purchases $33M worth of BTC (TB)

• VanEck files for a Hyperliquid ETF in the U.S. and an ETP in Europe (BW)

• Fintech Farmway Technologies reaches a $100M deal with the Republic of Georgia to put the country’s almond orchards on the blockchain (CT)

• Robin Energy, an international energy transportation company, completes its initial $5M Bitcoin buy (TB)

• KindlyMD commits $30M to participate in Metaplanet's global equity offering (TB)

• Linea, the Ethereum Layer 2 network, opens claims for its native asset LINEA (TB)

Market Predictions

• Bettors on Kalshi are predicting who the richest person this year will be at the end of 2026

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Venture Capital

• Koah raises $5M is a seed round led by Forerunner and South Park Commons (CH)

• Gyld Finance raises $1.5M in a pre-seed round led by Lightshift (CH)

M&A

• Asset Entities says its shareholders approve the firm’s planned merger with Strive Enterprises (TB)

IPO

• Crypto exchange Gemini raises the pricing guidance for its planned IPO to $24-26 per share, which would value the company at ~$3.1B (CD)

• Blockchain lending firm Figure Technology raises the size of its IPO, potentially reaching $800M (CT)

Launches

• Kraken to open up xStocks for its European customers (TB)

• Ledger launches a mobile app for enterprise customers (TB)

• Minnesota credit union to launch the first stablecoin from a U.S. credit union (CD)

• New batches of crypto ETFs from Rex-Osprey to launch Friday (CT)

• Backpack to debut spot crypto trading in the U.S. (DC)

• Cracked Labs announces BattleCodes, an esports-style tournament determined by P&L performance (BW)

• LitFinancial rolls out its U.S. dollar stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain (CD)

• StarkWare, a ZK tech company, announce the creation of Bitcoin verification for use on mobile devices (CT)

Regulation

• The SEC pushes back its decision on Nasdaq’s bid to list the Grayscale Hedera Trust (DC)

• U.S. SEC delays its decision on a handful of crypto-related ETFs (TB)

• India is unlikely to introduce legislation to regulate crypto (TB)

• Kyrgyzstan advances a bill to establish a state crypto reserve (CT)

• Belarusian President urges the country's financial sector to accelerate the adoption of crypto (CD)

• The U.S. Senate's market structure bill should pass by the end of the year (CD)

• Chief of U.S. OCC says they are trying to reverse crypto debanking (CD)

• Alabama state senator warns that GENIUS Act could harm small banks (CT)

• SEC chief Atkins picks pro-crypto veteran director to lead corporate finance division (CS)

Cybersecurity

• Analytics firm Bubblemaps flags 100 wallets that claimed $170M, calling it the “biggest airdrop Sybil of all time” (CT)

• Texas resident denied bankruptcy over $12.5M in creditor claims after running a crypto 'Ponzi scheme' (TB)

• Widespread npm compromise nets hackers just $1,043 (DC)

• Federal prosecutors file a complaint to forfeit USDT funds traced to a spoofed trading platform (DC)

• Ethereum experiences a rare slashing event with 39 validators penalized (CD)

• Staking platform Kiln says it is starting to exit its Ethereum validators in response to an exploit incident (TB)

• DC attorney general sues Athena Bitcoin, claiming that it charged undisclosed fees on deposits tied to scams (CT)

Extra Reads

• NFTs tied to Pokémon cards are seeing renewed interest, but they may have practical limits as collateral on-chain - Tokenized Pokémon Cards Are Hot. Lending Them for Crypto Is a Different Story

• If the DeFi industry doesn’t adopt the security tools we've already built, then we will watch institutional capital deploy elsewhere - Crypto is Bleeding Billions a Year. Traditional Finance Is Watching
  

Chart of the Day

Stablecoin inflows on Binance record its highest net stablecoin inflow of 2025

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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.