Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Ripple co-founder donated $11M+ of XRP to the Harris campaign, Michael Saylor recommends Bitcoin custody through banks instead of self-custody (what lol), institutional interest in Bitcoin futures is at an all-time high, and JPMorgan is bullish on crypto into 2025.

Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin touched a high of ~$69,450 early Monday before retracting below $68k to finish the day

• The US presidential election is expected to play an increasingly influential role in the crypto market in the weeks leading up to its result

  • Donald Trump has maintained a strong positive view toward the crypto sector and has spoken about various web3 sectors such as NFTs, bitcoin mining, and DeFi

  • Kamala Harris has recently announced support for crypto policies

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

• Chris Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple, donated over $11.8M to VP Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign (CNBC) 

• Michael Saylor recommends Bitcoin custodianship through “too big to fail” financial institutions rather than using self-custody, a stark difference to his previous position (CT)

• In a Pittsburgh town hall, Elon Musk addressed the value and benefits of XRP and cryptocurrency in shaping future financial systems, emphasizing the importance of individual freedom and fighting centralized control (BN)

• JPMorgan analysts have turned bullish on the crypto market, projecting a positive 2025 outlook (TB)

• Institutional interest soars as CME bitcoin futures open interest sets new all-time high (TB)

• US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $2.4B of net inflows in the six days through October 18 (BBG)

• Crypto ETFs look unlikely to expand beyond Bitcoin, Ether under Kamala Harris, according to experts (CD)

• Colorado-based Bitcoin miner Revolve Labs plans to build a $60M data center in Minnesota (CN)

• Crypto exchange MEXC partnered with Aptos to launch a series of events featuring a $1.5M USDT prize pool (DHL)

• VanEck’s European ETN for Solana now offers staking rewards to EU investors (DC)

• Crypto lender Ledn’s retail loans surged 225% YoY to $68.9M to process a total of $506M in loan transactions in Q3 (CS)

• 18 state Attorneys General write joint letter to release Binance executive from Nigerian Prison (DH)

M&A

• Tether-backed Northern Data, Europe’s largest Bitcoin miner, is considering a possible sale of its crypto-mining business (CT)

• Komainu, the cryptocurrency custodian backed by Nomura, is acquiring Singaporean rival custodian Propine in its first acquisition (BBG)

Venture Capital

• Singapore-based crypto VC V3V disclosed its crypto investments in its Telegram channel (DH)

• Crypto VC market 'tepid' as Q3 investments declined 20% (GD)

Regulation

• CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam is urging congress to act on crypto and election betting legislation (TB)

• Japan’s political party leader promises crypto tax cuts if elected (CT)

• Indonesia extends deadline for crypto exchange licenses (CN)

• FCA doubles down on hawkish crypto stance to fight money laundering (CN)

Token Launches

• ApeExpress launches on ApeChain: $BORED reaches $22M market cap shortly after debut (CD)

• Meme coin launchpad Pump.fun is planning to launch a token and may hold an airdrop for users (DC) 

Cybersecurity

• Crypto VC-linked entity lost $36M to a phishing attack (CM)

• A Chinese woman pleaded not guilty to a UK Bitcoin laundering case (BBG)

• Crypto on-ramp firm Transak reported a data breach that affected over 92K users (CT) 

• Tapioca offerered $1M to ‘social engineering’ attacker who stole $4.7M (CT)

• Japanese authorities dismantle Monero-linked scam in landmark investigation (CS)

• Crypto exchange WazirX reportedly transferred $72M of crypto to rival platform Bybit after Wazir’s recent hack (CNZ)

Extra Reads

• ​​When Wall Street scrambled to launch bitcoin funds earlier this year, there was just one trading company named in regulatory filings as an anchor market-maker for every single one: Jane Street (FT)

Meme Dump

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