Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Senators Lummis is going to war in congress for crypto, M&A activity stays hot with Robinhood joining in on the fun, TRUMP token holders have a stupid amount of money, Animoca Brands is interested in U.S. IPO, Curve Finance lost their website, and people might actually be bullish on ETH again…

Happy Wednesday - let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

• Bitcoin came within a few dollars of the $105,000 level

  • BTC faces resistance at $106,000, so consolidation is likely before next leg higher

• Ethereum's ETH led crypto gains with a 9% advance to $2,700

  • Crypto is benefitting from rising institutional interest and mainstream adoption, highlighted by Coinbase being included in the broad-market S&P 500 index, LMAX Group market strategist Joel Kruger said

• Institutional flows will be selective of altcoins, Wincent's Paul Howard said

• Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) surged +24% during the day as the stock is set to benefit from being included in the S&P 500 index

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

• Trump’s crypto dinner cost VIP attendees an average of $4.8M (DC)

• Senators Lummis and Moreno demand an adjustment to create fairer crypto tax guidelines - her full statements here

• Missouri bill if passed would enable tax-free Bitcoin spending - eliminating capital gains tax (BM)

• Shares of crypto/stock exchange eToro debuted at $52 each on the Nasdaq, valuing the company billions higher than estimated (CD)

• Hong-Kong crypto firm Animoca Brands eyes NYSE listing amid regulatory improvements (NG)

• Coinbase shares explode almost +24% after S&P500 announcement (YH)

• Yuga Labs, the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, sells CryptoPunks IP to Infinite Node Foundation (CT)

• Dubai partners with Crypto(dot)com to launch crypto payments for government services (BM)

• Cantor Equity Partners scoops up $458M worth of BTC ahead of pending merger with Twenty One Capital (CD)

• Grayscale Solana ETF delayed until October for final decision from SEC (BW)

• Armed men are on the run after attempting to kidnap family members of a crypto entrepreneur (TB)

• Head of Digital Assets at Morgan Stanley leaves to launch his own DeFi fund (CD)

• Trump family denies rumors of a ‘Truth Social’ memecoin as scammers promote fake token (CD)

• Arkham Intelligence Data reveals that UK asset manager has bought nearly $500M in the last week, with $84M coming in the last 12 hours (TB)

• Nasdaq-listed GD Culture Group to sell up to $300M in shares to acquire Bitcoin and TRUMP memecoin (TB)

• CoinShares, a digital asset investment firm, said its net profit fell to $24M in the first quarter of 2025, a 42.2% decrease from the same period a year ago (CT)

• Public corporations have already bought 3.3 times more Bitcoin than has been supplied in 2025 (BM)

Venture Capital

• Arbitrum Gaming Ventures unveils first companies in $10M ecosystem cohort including Wildcard, Hyve Labs, T-Rex, Xai, and Proof of Play (BW)

• Perpl, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, raised $9.25M from Dragonfly to build on Monad (PA)

• Spacecomputer announces pre-seed funding from Primitive, Nascent, and others to build cypherpunk crypto systems for space (SC)

• Coinbase Canada establishes strategic partnership and undisclosed investment in Stablecorp for tokenized Canadian dollars (CT)

• Bitlayer CEO defends bitcoin venture investors claiming they spur needed ecosystem development (CT)

Launches

• VanEck debuts the Treasury Fund (VBILL), offering on-chain access to Treasuries across Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain (CD)

• Thailand finance minister says the country plans to launch a $150M digital investment token to the public (TB)

• Inca Digital chosen as surveillance partner by Wyoming Stable Token Commission for state-backed stablecoin (TB)

• Brave adds Cardano blockchain support to browser and Web3 wallet (CT)

Regulation

• The Gibraltar government said it is establishing the world's first regulatory framework for clearing and settling of crypto derivatives (CD)

• South Korea’s largest political party created a Digital Asset Committee for crypto policy and growth (CT)

• Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signs bill to regulate crypto ATMs after vetoing two other crypto bills (CT)

Cybersecurity

• Researchers found a malicious Python Package Index downloaded 761 times related to Solana blockchain (HN)

• SEC hacker that posted false information on the Bitcoin ETF approval requests judge to give less than a year sentence (CT)

• Curve Finance website hijacked through targeted DNS attack (TB)

Extra Reads

• A bill to regulate stablecoins failed to pass a crucial vote in the US Senate on May 8 in part due to Democratic lawmakers' concerns over Donald Trump's ties to crypto - here are the next steps for the stablecoin bill in congress

Chart of the Day

Corporations have a larger net increase of bitcoin holdings in 2025 than ETFs, governments, and individuals combined 🤯

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