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Here's a quick preview of today’s content: DOJ sets its sights on the Tornado cash founder, UK regulators get nosey about crypto customer transactions, a well known venture capitalist gets caught in the Coinbase data breach fiasco, crypto influencer and builder Cobie joins a major crypto investment firm, and more

Oh by the way we started a crypto meme instagram that’s definitely worth the follow

Happy Monday - let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Major cryptocurrencies, including ether, XRP, and dogecoin, fell about -3% after Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating

  • Moody's cut the U.S. sovereign credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa, citing rising deficits and interest expenses

    • The firm now joins Fitch and S&P in assigning a rating below the once-unblemished triple-A status long held by the world’s largest economy

• The U.S. Treasury yields rose and S&P 500 futures dipped following the downgrade, impacting both traditional and crypto markets.

Headline Roundup
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• Moody’s rating agency strips the U.S. of ‘AAA’ rating over debt repayment and interest rate ratio concerns - read the full impact of the downgrade here

• The DOJ decides to movie forward with case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm (BW)

• Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha was part of the 1% affected by Coinbase data breach (CT)

• Undercover NYPD arrest NFT influencer and artist Isaac ‘DrifterShoots’ Wright  at his own art exhibition - watch it unfold here

• JP Morgan analysts believe bitcoin investments could outpace gold in the coming years with corporate adoption (DT)

• A judge denied a $50M Ripple x SEC settlement due to improper filing and jurisdictional issues (CD)

• Argentinean President Javier Milei fails to attend mediation hearing as judge orders to unseal bank records (TB)

• Nick Almond steps in as Head of Governance for the Jito Foundation (BW)

• Ethereum stablecoin volume hits new record of $908B (BL)

• Crypto industry to benefit directly from Saudi Arabia’s $600B pledged investment into U.S. emerging technologies (NJ)

• Warren Buffet profits $250M exiting position in crypto-friendly Nubank (CT)

• The state of Wisconsin sells $350M spot bitcoin ETF holdings following market downturn in 2024 (CD)

• A public healthcare company is negotiating a shareholder vote to acquire $1B of bitcoin for ‘Asia growth strategy’ (DT)

• Brazil fintech firm Meliuz buys 247 BTC with plans for bitcoin treasury (TB)

• Coinsilium Group advised by CoinDesk analyst to establish Bitcoin Treasury strategy (CD)

• Craft spirits company Heritage Distilling $CASK ( ▲ 1.87% ) to accept bitcoin payments and establish treasury (BM)

• KULR Technology mining group sees $18.8M net loss due to market adjustments from $2.5M Q1 revenue (TB)

• Hong Kong based Top Win International partners with Sora Ventures for rebrand to AsiaStrategy to focus on digital assets (DF)

• Steak ‘N Shake U.S. burger chain now accepts bitcoin payments through the Lightning Network (BM)

• GlobalStake and BitGo establish partnership for secure, scalable, sustainable institutional crypto offerings (BW)

• EOS token surges 11% as Trump-tied WLF invests $3M (DF)

• Nyan Heroes shuts down operations as fundraising issues stall Solana gaming company (DT)

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Venture Capital

• On-chain trading platform TrendX raises $11.2M including new investors Animoca Brands and Cream Labs (TX)

• Giza announces $5.2M seed round from Base Ecosystem Fund, CoinFund, and more institutional investors (GZ)

• Vinanz secures $4M institutional investment to boost BTC holdings ahead of Nasdaq listing (CCN)

• Taker Protocol gets strategic backing from 071 Labs to create a diversified bitcoin community (TP)

• Echo founder and popular crypto trader Jordan Fisher (also known as 'Cobie' online) joins investment firm Paradigm as advisor (TB)

Launches

• World Financial Liberty stablecoin USD1 now available across multiple blockchains via Chainlink integration (CD)

• Tron-issued USDT surpasses Ethereum with latest $2B mint (DF)

Regulation

• Every customer transaction on a UK crypto firms platform must be reported to the government starting in 2026 (CT)

• Binance is supporting Ukraine to adopt bitcoin for it’s national reserves (CS)

• Multiple kidnappings lead to French Minister implementing new security measures to protect crypto professionals (CD)

• Every customer transaction on crypto firms’ platforms must be reported to UK government starting in 2026 (CT)

Cybersecurity

• An artist that built a $2M crypto nest egg loses entire portfolio to Coinbase hack (BBG)

• 12 individuals arrested by Hong Kong police in suspected $15M cross-border laundering scheme (TB)

• Man that hacked the SEC X account to post false Bitcoin ETF announcement sentenced to 14 months (CD)

• DOJ indicts 12 over $263M sophisticated crypto laundering scheme (BL)

• Three undocumented Chinese immigrants deported from Paraguay after failed attempt to steal crypto mining machines (CT)

• Barclays analysts say Coinbase $COIN ( ▼ 3.23% ) -7.2% stock dip was a ‘overreaction’ to the recent data hack situation (YF)

Extra Reads

• Sunday marked 15 years since early adopter Laszlo Hanyecz first posted his historic, cheesy request to Bitcointalk - 3 facts you didn’t know about the legendary story
  

• This week’s market action seems to suggest that even a 10x increase in tariff rates won’t derail the US economy - a breakdown of how possible a US recession is in 2025

Chart of the Day

The odds of a US recession have significantly dropped in 2025 on prediction markets

Meme Dump

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