Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: A big week at The Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Vegas is adding bullish market sentiment, a trader publicly lost $87M profit in 5 days, BlackRock is going all in on Circle’s IPO, a public company announces an XRP treasury as Bitcoin treasuries stay hot, a $300M crypto scheme was discovered in Thailand, and so much more.

Happy Thursday 🤝

Don’t pull a James Wynn. Realize your gains. Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• The selloff in crypto accelerated somewhat during U.S. Wednesday morning trading hours

  • Bitcoin's roughly 50% rally from the post-early April bottom to a new record high of $112,000 last week has more than a few market participants suggesting 2021-like signs of froth

• The bitcoin miners led declines in crypto-related stocks

  • MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Hut 8 (HUT) each lower by nearly -10%

• NYDIG suggested this current bull move has plenty of room to run (CD)

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

• Hyperliquid whale 'James Wynn' publicly loses $47M after unrealized profits of $87M last week - the craziest trade journey you’ll ever read here

• BlackRock looks to purchase 10% of Circle’s shares at IPO (TB)

• Trump’s Executive Director Bo Hines tells the Bitcoin Conference crowd that the U.S. if officially the global crypto powerhouse (BM)

• Nvidia shares rose 4% after strong earnings results boosting AI tokens like TAO, NEAR, and ICP - see the full earnings report breakdown here

• $58M connected to the LIBRA memecoin scam has been frozen by Circle (DF)

• Nasdaq listed energy firm VivoPower $VVPR ( ▲ 9.43% ) plans for XRP treasury strategy with $121M Saudi backing (CD)

• GameStop announces $500M bitcoin purchase for corporate treasury (TC)

• Mark Zuckerberg urged by Strive CEO to purchase bitcoin for corporate treasury (DF)

• Gemini co-founder and multi-billionaire Cameron Winklevoss predicts $1M BTC price calling it ‘the new gold’ (DF)

• 2% of the entire stablecoin market will be flooded by $5B creditor repayments from FTX beginning May 30 (DF)

• 9dcc luxury retail phygital web3 project winds down operations (9D)

• El Salvador ignores IMF warnings and purchases 8 more BTC (DT)

• Bitcoin product lead at Block Miles Suter announces vision to make bitcoin an every day payment tool (BM)

• Human Rights Foundation announces 22 global grants valued at ~ $875k (BM)

Venture Capital

• Altose Ventures and Dragonfly co-lead $36M Series A for stablecoin startup Conduit (NG)

• Freysa AI quietly raised $30M from Coinbase Ventures and Selini capital for AI x crypto tech (TB)

• Web3 game distribution startup Oncade raises $4M seed led by A16Z CSX (FS)

• BlockSpaces raises $2M led by Axiom for bitcoin native collateral and risk platform (PR)

• Ego looks to ‘financialize’ all internet profiles with $800k pre-seed funding from Solana co-founder and Slow Ventures (ET)

Launches

• CryptoLife Technology, Baanx Group, and Ledger partner to launch a CL card - waitlist is open here

• Exodus launches a web3 card in partnership with Baanx - announced at the Bitcoin Conference

• Coinbase showcases CDP wallets to allow users control without key management (TB)

• Ethereum L2 ZKsync launches private blockchain platform Prividium for institutional use cases (DF)

• StarkNet launches new class of bitcoin-native assets called Asset Runes (DF)

• eToro lists 12 new tokens ahead of IPO roadshow (DT)

Regulation

• The U.S. Department of Labor withdraws full 2022 guidance plan discouraging fiduciaries to exclude crypto from 401(k) plans (DoL)

• The SEC is taking public comments during its review of proposes spot XRP ETF (CT)

• Pakistan follows the U.S. with strategic bitcoin reserve (DF)

• New York City Mayor showcases pro-crypto beliefs by announcing a Bit Bond (BM)

Cybersecurity

• Thailand officials arrest a Vietnamese woman tied to a $300M crypto scam (CD)

• Cork Protocol pauses all platform activity due to $12M exploit (CD)

• Former director of Blockchain Global is being sued by Australia’s securities regulator for mismanagement of $15M of user funds (TB)

Extra Reads

• Decentralized money was a “very unpopular goal” when concepts were proposed in the ’90s, said Nick Szabo - Why Bitcoin may not have been possible in the ’90s
  

• Tech Podcast 'TBPN' had crypto day hosting a ton of CEOs and founders in the crypto space - see the podcast here

Chart of the Day

Hyperliquid millionaire James Wynn reached an unrealized profit of $87M in 2 months before losing it in 5 days all on 15x leveraged trades - truly one of the craziest PNLs ever

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