Good Morning,

Welcome to the first edition of Crypto Sum! We’re excited to bring you the most relevant digital asset news to your inbox every morning. We help cut through the noise, the scams, the pump & dumps, to help you focus on what’s truly driving value in this market.

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: BlackRock is pushing for a new token to use as collateral, MrBeast is caught up in a ‘pump-and-dump’ scandal that has the internet reeling, millions have suspiciously been moved from an early BTC wallet, and VanEck is launching a venture fund that’s turning heads in the space.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

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

• Ripple names exchange partners for its dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD and awaits NYDFS Approval (CD)

• BlackRock is pushing to have its BUIDL token accepted as collateral in the crypto derivatives market (NB)

• The DOJ indicted former pro snowboarder Ryan James Wedding for cocaine trafficking using stablecoin Tether USDT (DC)

• Craig Wright, who claimed to have created Bitcoin, initiated a new lawsuit against Bitcoin Core developers seeking $1B in damages (CS)

• A Bitcoin whale who first mined BTC just days after Satoshi launched the network has moved millions' worth to Kraken (DC)

• Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a new wrapped bitcoin product, kBTC (BK)

• Tesla transferred its entire Bitcoin (BTC) holdings worth approximately $765M, to a series of unidentified wallets (CS)

• Kamala Harris’ “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” states it will “protect cryptocurrency investments so black men who make them know their money is safe” (BW)

• Demand for Bitcoin futures has jumped to highest level since 2023 (CT)

• Vitalik Buterin proposes fundamental changes to Ethereum in recent blog post (DF)

• Kairos Power, a US-based nuclear engineering company, recently inked a long-term deal with Google that could revolutionize crypto mining (CT)

• MrBeast has been accused of making $10M from crypto ‘pump-and-dumps’ (DC)

• Donald Trump’s ‘World Liberty Financial’ began its token sale Tuesday morning, but traffic crashed the site (DC)

• NFT activity on Telegram surged by 400% in Q3 (CT)

• Tether’s stablecoin USDT passed a record $120B market cap (CT)

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $556M of inflows on October 14 (CT)

• Memecoin launchpad Pump.Fun shattered active user and coin launch metrics (TD)

M&A Announcements

• Payments company Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1B deal, the largest acquisition in the crypto industry to date (NB)

Venture Capital Deals

• Praxis, a project aiming to create a city with fewer regulations for crypto and AI tech leaders, claims to have received a $525M funding pledge from various companies, including crypto lending platform Arch Lending and crypto investment firm GEM Digital (CT)

• Blockstream raised a $210M funding round led by Fulgur Ventures (DH)

• Robot Ventures raised $75M for its new crypto startup VC fund (MS)

• Azra Games raised a $42.7M Series A led by Pantera Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto, a16z Games, and NFX (CT)

• Yellow Card raised a $33M Series C led by Blockchain Capital (ZW)

• VanEck announced the launch of VanEck Ventures, a $30M fund dedicated to early-stage startups in fintech, digital assets, and AI (CM)

• zkPass, a privacy-preserving protocol for data verification, raised a $12.5M Series A (TB)

• Neobank CYBRO raised $3M in its presale to surpass established networks like Polygon and Polkadot (CD)

• Fission announced a $1.6M pre-seed funding round led by SALT Fund and Kraynos Capital, with participation from Anthony Scaramucci (PL)

Regulation

• The SEC approved options trading for 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs on the NYSE (FM)

• Ireland is set to draft urgent crypto regulations as it prepares for new EU standards for money laundering and terrorist financing (DIG)

• The UAE is set to introduce a legal framework for DAOs (CT)

• US state attorneys are pushing for Biden to help free a detained Binance executive in Nigeria (CT)

• Stablecoins can benefit the current financial system according to Federal Reserve Bank Governor Christopher Waller (CT)

• Senator Elizabeth Warren and crypto lawyer John Deaton exchanged blows over crypto policy in their first debate in the race for a US Senate seat (CT)

• Grayscale asked the SEC for permission to convert its $524M fund tracking multiple cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, and SOL into an ETF (CT)

• Coinbase intensifies legal push for SEC's views on Ethereum (FM)

Cybersecurity

• The FBI arrested the man responsible for hacking the SEC's X account (BBG)

• A US judge sentenced an Indian man to five years in prison for creating a fake Coinbase website (DC)

• Decentralized network for Fair AI Masa’s utility token MASA was recently exploited twice (DC)

• An entity linked to crypto VC Continue Capital lost $36M to a cyberattack (CMC)

• Fracture Labs, creator of the Web3 game Decimated, filed a lawsuit suit against market maker Jump Crypto for allegedly orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme (CT)

• Sui, a L1 blockchain, refuted accusations that insiders had offloaded $400M worth of SUI tokens during a recent price surge (DC)

Extra Reads

• NEOS Investments just announced an income-focused Bitcoin ETF. The NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI) aims to offer crypto-focused investors predictable monthly income – while simultaneously providing exposure to Bitcoin. Check out their announcement on X and view the BTCI prospectus for more details.

• Rahim Taghizadegan is an Austrian economist and early Bitcoin adopter. He posted an interesting X thread on Bitcoin’s lasting utility and sustainability.

Meme Dump

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