Reported by Coindesk, trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) has agreed to acquire crypto exchange Bitstamp as it looks to expand its crypto presence globally and attract institutional clients through new product offerings, the company announced Tuesday.

The $200 million all-cash deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025, according to the press release. Barclays Capital and Galaxy Digital advised Robinhood and Bitstamp on the sale, the firms said.

“The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business," said Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto "Bitstamp’s highly trusted and long standing global exchange has shown resilience through market cycles … Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the U.S. and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood.”

Bitstamp is a U.K.-based crypto exchange that was founded in 2011 and quickly became one of the largest crypto exchanges in Europe. It currently offers spot trading of over 85 cryptocurrencies as well as other crypto products including institutional lending and staking, among others. It is one of the most regulated on the market, holding more than 50 licenses and registrations globally, according to the release. It also undergoes regular audits by a global Big Four accounting firm.

Robinhood started offering crypto trading to clients in the European Union in December.

“Bringing Bitstamp's platform and expertise into Robinhood’s ecosystem will give users an enhanced trading experience with a continuing commitment to compliance, security, and customer-centricity,” said JB Graftieaux, CEO of Bitstamp, who along with the rest of the leadership team will remain in place following the sale.

The deal could ramp up the competition in the crypto exchange market as Robinhood's international expansion may take more market share from the likes of Coinbase (COIN), which is also pushing to grow outside of North America.

Reported by Cointelegraph, asset manager Franklin Templeton is exploring a new crypto fund for institutional investors, expanding its offerings beyond Bitcoin and Ether.

According to a June 6 report from The Information, the mutual fund is considering a private fund to expose institutional investors to altcoins. The fund would also offer staking rewards, the report says, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report does not mention which altcoins would compose the fund’s basket, but the asset manager has recently praised the Solana network’s growth in 2024. According to analytics firm Messari, in the first quarter of 2024, Solana’s spot decentralized exchange volume increased by 319% to $1.5 billion from the previous quarter.

Franklin Templeton manages approximately $1.64 trillion in assets as of March 2024. This figure places the asset manager among the largest investment management firms globally.

The company is actively involved in the crypto space with several funds. One of its most popular projects is its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), launched in January.

Franklin is also one of the proponents of a spot Ether ETF, recently approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The ETF is currently waiting for the agency’s clearance to launch.

“We are excited about ETH and its ecosystem. Despite the midlife crisis it’s recently experienced, we see a bright future with many strong tailwinds to push the Ethereum ecosystem forward,” the company previously said in a post on X.

Reported by The Block, M^0 (pronounced "M Zero"), a decentralized stablecoin minting protocol, has raised $35 million in a Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto.

Other investors in the round included Galaxy Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, GSR, Caladan and SCB 10X, M^0 said Wednesday. The project began raising for the round in late January and closed it in early May, Luca Prosperi, president of the M^0 Foundation Council, told The Block.

The round was structured as equity plus tokens, with M^0 issuing its two "governance tokens" — POWER and ZERO — to investors, subject to a lock-in period, Prosperi said. He added that this lock-in period is in line with "prudent business and regulatory practices." He declined to comment on the valuation.

M^0's Series A round comes over a year after it raised $22.5 million in a seed funding round led by Pantera Capital in April 2023. The Series A round brings M^0's total funding to $57.5 million. Prosperi noted that the demand for the Series A round was 2.5 times the amount raised.

M^0 is a stablecoin minting protocol based on Ethereum where approved entities can create a stablecoin called M, which is "overcollateralized by U.S. Treasuries only." To mint M, entities need permission from the protocol's governance. Once approved, they provide their own standardized "high-quality" collateral, which independent validators check to ensure it meets the standards.

The M^0 protocol has been deployed on the Ethereum mainnet and will go live in the coming weeks, Prosperi said. The first minter and validator have also been approved, with details to be disclosed later.

"Any entity can ask to be permissioned and become a minter, but needs to be approved by governance," Prosperi said, adding that entities must comply with M^0's "adopted guidances," which will be released soon.

Prosperi noted that other stablecoin issuers, such as Agora and Mountain, could also join the protocol and mint M according to M^0 standards. "M^0 is actually a network that can connect all those compatible issuers," he said.

As for the M stablecoin's reserves, they must be held in bankruptcy-remote vehicles managed by special purpose vehicle operators that are separate from minters, Prosperi said. These reserves will be validated and published daily by approved validators in the M^0 system, he added.

While the M^0 protocol will initially launch on Ethereum, Prosperi said that the M stablecoin could eventually be made available on other Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. The M^0 team is currently working on its multichain strategy. The team is led by former MakerDAO and Circle employees.

There are currently more than 50 people working for M^0, and Prosperi is looking to expand the team across functions, including engineering, legal, business development and operations.

As part of the Series A round, Bain Capital Crypto has taken a board seat at M^0, alongside Pantera Capital, Road Capital and AirTree, Prosperi said.

Reported by Cointelegraph, Paxos International is issuing an interest-bearing stablecoin called the Lift Dollar (USDL). The USDL will be regulated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and pay overnight yield on the interest Paxos International earns on the reserves backing it.

The USDL will be backed 1:1 by liquid U.S. government securities and cash equivalent reserve assets held in accordance with the requirements of the ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Rather than earning interest on those reserves, Paxos International will charge an issuer fee for the token.

Paxos announced separately that the USDL will be available in Argentina through distributors Ripio, Buenbit, Manteca and Plus Crypto.

An Ethereum smart contract will use a mechanism called rebasing to distribute yield on the USDL automatically based on market conditions. According to Bloomberg, the yield will amount to about 5%. Paxos International said in a statement that the USDL is the first interest-bearing, regulated stablecoin. In general, stablecoin holders can also earn interest through staking, restaking and yield farming.

USDL will not be available to residents of the United States, the United Arab Emirates outside the ADGM, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan or Singapore. Paxos International explained:

“The digital assets referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the US, except pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration.”

Reported by The Block, Avail, a modular blockchain project that spun out of Polygon last year, has raised $43 million in a Series A funding round ahead of its mainnet launch.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Dragonfly and Cyber Fund co-led the round, Avail said Tuesday. Other investors included SevenX Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Chapter One, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, KR1, Alliance and Hashkey Capital. Many investors, including Founders Fund and Dragonfly, are repeat backers of Avail, increasing their investments in the project.

Avail's Series A funding round comes just three months after it raised $27 million in seed funding in February. At that time, Avail was raising another round of funding. The latest round brings Avail's total funding to $75 million, including a $5 million pre-seed round, co-founder Anurag Arjun told The Block in an interview.

Arjun said the Series A round was structured using a combination of SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) and SAFT (simple agreement for future tokens) and officially closed last week. He declined to comment on the valuation; Avail's fully diluted valuation was several hundred million dollars when it raised a seed round in February.

Reported by The Block, blockchain developer StarkWare has announced plans to build a Bitcoin scaling solution in a significant expansion pivot.

StarkWare, which was valued at $8 billion in its last investment round, is the core contributor to Ethereum Layer 2 Starknet. With the new Bitcoin OP_CAT proposal currently being debated in the community, the firm says it's the right time to bring its zero-knowledge scaling technology to Bitcoin.

“Starknet will become the first network to settle simultaneously on Bitcoin and Ethereum, and scale Bitcoin to many thousands of transactions per second. This will happen within six months after the potential Bitcoin upgrade, OP_CAT,” StarkWare CEO and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson said in a statement shared with The Block.

No extra chain is being created — the plan uses the same Starknet network with the same governance and tokenomics, supporting Bitcoin scaling without requiring a fork, the team clarified. Every dApp could choose where it wants to settle — either or both, Ben-Sasson told The Block.

“StarkWare is often mistaken for being an Ethereum maxi, though actually we are scaling maxis,” Ben-Sasson added. “We’re mass-use maxis. We’re STARK maxis, which means we believe our technology is best suited to scale all blockchains safely and efficiently. At StarkWare, we now have the expertise, experience and team to simultaneously scale both Ethereum and Bitcoin.”

StarkWare also announced the introduction of a $1 million application-based fund for Bitcoin researchers interested in contributing to its plans. Applications will open “within weeks,” Ben-Sasson said, with funds “earmarked for new discoveries which demonstrate risks associated with OP_CAT, or open source and useful proofs of concept.”

Reported by The Defiant, pensioners in Wisconsin are now exposed to Bitcoin, after the state’s pension fund allocated roughly 0.1% of its $156 billion portfolio to spot Bitcoin ETFs.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board invested roughly $160 million in Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, according to a Form 13-F filing to the SEC.

Having a fund of its size and solvency allocate even a small percentage of its assets under management to Bitcoin signals the asset is maturing and seen as a legitimate investment.

Wisconsin’s State Pension Fund is one of the most financially sound funds in the U.S. According to the State of Pensions 2023 report conducted by pension analyst firm Equable, Wisconsin ranks 5 in funded ratio, at 100.2%. The figure leaves Wisconsin comfortably ahead of the nation-wide average at 78%, signaling significant solvency among similar funds of its kind.

It’s considered a “great success” by the Wisconsin Retired Educators Association, ranking 25 largest in the world, and ninth in the country.

“This is just an entry point and I think they’re [the fund] testing the public’s reaction,” said Marquette University Associate Professor of Emeritus Finance David Krause in a May 31 PBS interview. “It’s a trial run that’s not really going to impact the portfolio substantially, but rather add diversification until it reaches a 1 or even 2% allocation.”

Reported by Cointelegraph, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has announced amendments to its cryptocurrency token regime to enhance and advance the regulatory framework for tokens within its special economic zone.

The DFSA is an independent regulator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which oversees entities registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), one of the country’s special economic zones.

On June 3, the DFSA said it revised its crypto token regime to reflect changes stemming from its Consultation Paper 153, published in January 2024. The amendments addressed several vital areas, including funds investing in crypto tokens and the recognition process for crypto tokens.

With regard to funds, the amendment affected the ability to offer units of external and foreign funds investing in recognized crypto tokens. Previously, the DFSA had restricted fund activities involving crypto tokens.

In its recent consultation paper, the regulator said that fund and asset managers described the regime as too strict. The DFSA wrote:

“They expressed the view that the current regulatory approach was too stringent, especially the limitations on External Funds and Foreign Funds investing in Crypto Tokens and, for some, the restriction on investing in Recognised Crypto Tokens only.”

The changes also affected the ability of domestic qualified investor funds to invest in unrecognized tokens.

While the regulator believes that the recognition process is important, it also considered the viability of allowing domestic funds to make limited investments in unrecognized crypto as long as the exposure did not exceed 10% of the fund’s gross asset value (GAV).

Before the amendments, the application fee for token recognition was $10,000 per token. The DFSA noted that many considered this fee excessively high, particularly for firms seeking recognition for multiple tokens. Additionally, some perceived the process as an “unnecessary burden.”

Based on the feedback, the regulator reduced the fees to $5,000 and introduced additional recognition criteria for stablecoins — crypto tokens pegged to fiat currencies. In its consultation paper, the DFSA emphasized that these changes do not indicate a more lenient stance.

Reported by Cointelegraph, Binance will be toeing the line when Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) rules of stablecoins (asset-referenced tokens) come into effect at the end of the month. The cryptocurrency exchange has alerted users in the European Economic Area to changes they can expect to their service.

MiCA creates uniform rules for crypto asset issuers that have not already been regulated in the European Union. In response, Binance is dividing stablecoins into “regulated” and unauthorized” coins according to their compliance with the new rules.

The exchange “aims to fulfill MiCA objectives smoothly by transitioning users from Unauthorized Stablecoins to Regulated Stablecoins over time, as more Regulated Stablecoins become available in the market.”

No rulings have been made yet on which stablecoins are or are not compliant with MiCA. Only a few stablecoins would meet MiCA requirements at present, Binance said.

Binance will principally rely on a “sell-only” strategy to comply with MiCA requirements. The strategy will especially apply to the Binance Convert function: “Convert functions for Unauthorized Stablecoins will be available in a ‘sell-only’ mode.”

MiCA was passed into law in May 2023. Binance may not be the first exchange to take action ahead of its implementation. In March, OKX delisted Tether in Europe without mentioning MiCA. In September, Binance denied reports based on a quote from an interview with Binance France legal head Marina Parthuisot that it intended to delist all stablecoins in Europe.

Expert opinion has been divided on the effect MiCA will have on the European crypto market, but many have spoken favorably of the law, with apprehension centered around only stablecoins.

Reported by The Block, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, a.k.a CZ, has reported to a low-security California facility in order to begin his four-month federal prison term as the country's richest inmate.

Zhao was given a four-month sentence and a $50 million personal fine in April following his guilty plea in November 2023 to failing to implement proper anti-money laundering protocols at Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange. Binance itself agreed to pay $4.3 billion in one of the largest monetary settlements in history, sparking mixed reactions from the crypto community.

"It appears CZ will not benefit from any earned time credit programs, and he is expected to serve the full 120 days in federal prison," Sam Mangel, who works as a federal prison consultant, "Though he’ll be uncomfortable, I believe Zhao will be safe and will not be extorted or be in danger."

CZ has reported to Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc in Lompoc, California, according to government records, a low-security federal prison located northwest of Los Angeles. FCI Lompoc has held several notable inmates convicted of white-collar crimes including Reed Slatkin, convicted of running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history largely targeting Scientologists, and Mossimo Gianulli, known for his role alongside his wife Lori Loughlin in a college admissions bribery scandal.

Following CZ's departure, Binance released a blog post highlighting its successes and outlining a vision for the future. "We are confident that Binance will emerge as a stronger company as we lay the foundation for the next 50 years,” it wrote.

Reported by Businesstimes, HONG Kong’s securities regulator said 11 cryptocurrency exchanges are a step closer to obtaining licences, one year after rolling out a digital-asset rulebook to try and foster a hub for the industry.

Applicants including Crypto.com and Bullish are “deemed to be licenced”, the Securities & Futures Commission’s (SFC’s) website showed on Saturday (Jun 1). Those venues are among platforms on the list with notable trading volumes globally.

Prominent digital-asset outfits such as OKX and Bybit, which regularly command big chunks of activity, withdrew bids for permits. Binance Holdings, the world’s largest exchange, didn’t apply, nor did the top US platform Coinbase Global or Kraken, another popular venue.

Hong Kong set a Jun 1 deadline for crypto exchanges to be either licenced or deemed to be so. Firms at a minimum must fall in the latter category to operate in the city and market services to local investors, and will receive actual permits once the SFC is satisfied about consistent compliance.

Reported by The Block, the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon raised $70 million in funding led by the venture firm Paradigm.

Bullish Capital, Polychain Capital, Hashkey Capital, Mantle, Galaxy, Hack VC, ViaBTC Capital, Amber, HTX Ventures and others also participated in the round, according to a company release.

Babylon builds infrastructure that allows proof-of-stake systems to obtain staking capital from bitcoin. The platform uses modular design and slashing functionality to let stake-base systems, such as blockchains, Layer 2s, DA layers and oracles, incorporate bitcoin as a staking and restaking asset.

"This funding will accelerate our mission to make Bitcoin the security backbone of PoS systems," Babylon co-founder David Tse said in a statement. "Our team is dedicated to advancing the utility of Bitcoin beyond its traditional roles and enhancing the security of the entire blockchain ecosystem."

Binance Labs, the venture arm of the crypto exchange Binance, previously invested an undisclosed sum in Babylon on Feb. 28. The platform had launched its public testnet, complete with NFT pass rewards, the day prior. Polychain Capital and Hack VC also co-led a December 2023 Series A funding round of $18 million.

Reported by Coindesk, the demand for spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will be a lot lower than for their bitcoin (BTC) equivalents for a number of reasons, JPMorgan said in a research report on Thursday.

JPMorgan said it expects spot ether ETFs to attract as much as $3 billion of net inflows for the rest of this year. If staking is permitted, the figure could rise as high as $6 billion, it said.

“Bitcoin had the first mover advantage, potentially saturating the overall demand for crypto assets in response to spot ETF approvals,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

Ether ETFs are close to becoming available in the U.S. after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved key regulatory filings from applicants last week. They are not yet cleared to trade because the regulator must also approve their S-1 filings before that can occur. Bitcoin ETFs began trading in January.

The bitcoin reward halving in April was an additional demand catalyst for spot bitcoin ETFs, the report said, noting that there is no similar impetus for ether in the future. The lack of staking for approved spot ether ETFs also makes these products less attractive compared with other platforms that offer staking yields, the bank said.

Ether as an application token, “differs from bitcoin in its value proposition for investors with bitcoin having a broader appeal by competing with gold in portfolio allocations,” the authors wrote.

The bank noted that less liquidity and lower assets under management (AUM) would make ether's spot ETFs less appealing to institutional investors than those of its larger rival.

The market’s initial reaction to the launch of spot ether ETFs is likely to be negative, as speculative investors who bought the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) in expectation of it being converted to an ETF are likely to take profit. ETHE could see $1 billion of outflows, putting downward pressure on ether prices, the report said.

Reported by Coindesk, the New York Stock Exchange would consider offering cryptocurrency trading if the regulatory status of such an expansion by the stock market giant was clearer, the company's president said.

"If there was clear regulatory guidance [in the U.S.], it would be an opportunity to look at," Lynn Martin said Wednesday during a panel discussion at Consensus 2024 in Austin, Texas.

U.S-listed spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) amassing $58 billion of assets is "a strong sign" that there's demand for regulated crypto products, she added.

While traditional financial markets and digital assets are increasingly getting more intertwined with more traditional financial heavyweights offering crypto products, the lack of regulatory clarity is still weighing on the industry slowing innovation, Martin and Tom Farley, CEO of crypto exchange Bullish, discussed during the panel discussion. (Bullish is the parent company of CoinDesk. Farley previously had Martin's job at NYSE.)

"The fact that you've seen $58 billion or so come to the ETFs has been a strong sign that the market is looking for regulation in traditional structures," Martin said. "So, hopefully, the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] saw the inflows and said, 'Hey, this makes a lot of sense,' considering bitcoin ETFs have been a tremendous success."

NYSE's U.S.-based rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a giant in regulated crypto futures trading, is planning to launch spot crypto trading to clients, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.

Farley highlighted the sudden change of heart towards crypto in U.S. politics, including the ousting of the anti-crypto chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), the passage of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) bill in the House, and Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump doubling down supporting crypto in a rapid chain of events.

Reported by The Defiant, Prominent web3-based artificial intelligence projects Ocean Protocol, Fetch AI, and SingularityNET — the “Artificial Superintelligence Alliance” (ASI) Alliance — announced that their forthcoming merger will take place in roughly two weeks.

On May 29, Fetch announced that the merger will begin on June 11, starting with Fetch’s native FET token being renamed to ASI. Users will be able to migrate their FET to ASI on a one-to-one basis, with SingularityNET's AGIX and Ocean Protocol's OCEAN migrations scheduled to go live from June 13 at conversion rates of roughly 0.433 ASI per token.

Fetch said the three projects span more than 200,000 tokenholders combined.

“This merger paves the way for a new era in AI, combining our strengths to achieve unprecedented advancements,” said Ben Goertzel, CEO of ASI Alliance and founder of SingularityNET Founder. “This is only the start of a broader movement to gather together forces working toward beneficial decentralized [artificial general intelligence].”

“This landmark partnership presents a formidable challenge to Big Tech's dominance in AI development,” ASI Alliance said. “This fusion… lays the groundwork for an open, scalable AI infrastructure that leverages blockchain to ensure ethical and trustworthy practices in AI development and deployment.”

The three projects first announced their intention to merge assets and establish a shared “tokenomic network” on March 27. Governance proposals outlining the merger were passed by each project’s respective community in April.

The ASI Alliance seeks to comprise a decentralized alternative to the cartel of centralized tech firms currently leading innovation and development within the artificial intelligence industry.

“Our mission is to combine our platforms to ensure ethical and transparent artificial intelligence to decentralize AI,” said Humayun Sheikh, the founder of Fetch AI and a founding investor in DeepMind.

Reported by Cointelegraph, United States spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have a “legit possibility” of launching by late June, according to analysts, after BlackRock updated a key filing necessary for launch.

On May 29, BlackRock updated its Form S-1 for its iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) with the Securities and Exchange Commission nearly a week after the regulator approved its 19b-4 filing — both need approval for the ETF to start trading.

“Good sign. [Probably] see rest roll in soon.” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a May 29 X post.

There will likely be another round to “fine tune” SEC comments, he added — but an “end of June launch [is] a legit possibility.” However, Balchunas kept his approval odds for around July 4, adding that an earlier approval would be a “long shot.”

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said BlackRock’s updated S-1 is “almost certainly the engagement we were looking for” as it shows “issuers and SEC are working towards spot Ethereum ETF launches.”

BlackRock’s amended S-1 gave information about its seed capital investor — the entity that allocates money to the fund so it can start trading.

On May 21, the investor, a BlackRock affiliate firm, “agreed to purchase $10,000,000 in Shares on May 21, 2024, and on May 21, 2024 took delivery of 400,000 Shares at a per-Share price of $25.00,” the filing said.

The filing also noted the ETF would list and trade under the ticker “ETHA.”

Reported by Cointelegraph, P2P.org, an Ethereum blockchain validator and provider of noncustodial staking tools, is moving to optimize staking rewards with a new API integration.

P2P.org has integrated an automated, end-to-end Restaking API, allowing users to restake Ether on decentralized staking protocols like EigenLayer, the firm announced on May 27.

The newly introduced Restaking API integrates with P2P.org’s existing Ethereum API, allowing intermediaries to both stake ETH and restake it on EigenLayer.

“Intermediaries are continually seeking ways to add value for their clients and differentiate their services in a crowded market,” P2P.org CEO Alex Esin said. “With our new Restaking API, we are providing a powerful tool that does just that,” he noted, adding:

“Our clients can now offer their users the ability to easily restake ETH, maximizing their staking rewards and airdrop opportunities directly from their own platforms.”

P2P.org’s new Restaking API platform features multiple rewards, including staking and restaking rewards, Secret Shared Validator incentives, EigenLayer future rewards, as well as anticipated Actively Validated Services’ airdrops, all accessible through a single integration point.

Aave is looking to launch its own blockchain, dubbed Aave Network, after its forthcoming V4 upgrade. Given the lending protocol’s $13 billion in total value locked (TVL), the proposed network could potentially become one of the largest Layer 2 solutions in DeFi.

On May 1, Aave unveiled its V4 iteration featuring a unified cross-chain liquidity layer and liquidity premiums.

Yesterday, following speculation from Aave DAO members on social media, Aave CEO Stani Kulechov posted, “This is not a drill, Aave Network is planned to come after V4.”

When questioned on the timeline for V4, Kulechov continued, posting, “Next year for sure.” While there is little information publicly available on the potential Aave Network, it is presumed that the network will be secured by Ethereum and act as a hub for both Aave Protocol and its native stablecoin, GHO.

The Aave community was excited by the news, with figures such as Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI), saying, “It would also be the 3rd largest “chain” after Ethereum and Tron.”

Reported by Cointelegraph, BlackRock’s income and bond-focused funds have bought shares of the asset manager’s own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the first quarter, regulatory filings show.

BlackRock’s Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (BSIIX) snapped up $3.56 million worth of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) while its Strategic Global Bond Fund (MAWIX) made a $485,000 purchase, according to May 28 Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The IBIT shares are a fraction of BSIIX and MAWIX’s investment portfolios, respectively worth $37.4 billion and 776.4 million.

IBIT currently holds $19.61 billion worth of Bitcoin, according to BlackRock data from May 24.

It only trails the converted Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which holds $19.76 billion as of May 28, Grayscale data shows.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs globally now hold over 1 million Bitcoin worth over $68 billion — equating to nearly 5.10% of its over 19.7 million BTC circulating supply according to CoinGecko.

More than 600 United States investment firms have bought spot Bitcoin ETFs since they launched in January, recent SEC filings revealed.

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, BNP Paribas, UBS and hedge funds including Millennium Management and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors were some of the firm’s buying up Bitcoin funds.

Millennium is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF accumulator, with $1.9 billion invested, including $844.2 million into IBIT and $806.7 million into the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).

Reported by Cointelegraph, crypto exchange Binance has called on small and medium-sized projects to combat the low float and high fully diluted valuations (FDV) trend within the crypto space.

On May 20, Binance invited small and medium-sized projects to apply for its listing programs. The exchange said that the move to support small and medium projects with sustainable models will help enhance the crypto ecosystem. It wrote:

“We hope to enhance the development of the blockchain ecosystem through our support of small and medium-sized projects with strong fundamentals, an organic community base, a sustainable business model, and a dedicated team acting as responsible industry participants.”

The move seemingly responds to a trend of projects launching at high market capitalizations while many tokens remain locked.

On May 17, Binance Research highlighted that launching with low circulating supplies has become increasingly common in token projects. These projects allocate a large portion of the token supply for future releases.

According to the report, these tokens experience rapid price appreciation under bullish market conditions. This is attributed to the limited liquidity available during the launch.

“However, it is apparent that this kind of price growth is unsustainable when a wave of token supply hits the market upon unlocking,” Binance wrote.

Pseudonymous crypto researcher Flow posted on May 17 that in the last six months, 80% of tokens listed on Binance have fallen since their launch.

Flow highlighted that most newly launched tokens function as “exit liquidity” for insiders capitalizing on the lack of retail access because of the low initial circulating supply.

In May 2024, about $3 billion worth of vested crypto tokens were scheduled to be unlocked. Projects like Sui and Pyth Network are expected to unlock over $1 billion in crypto tokens allocated to various crypto holders, such as early investors.

Citing Token Unlocks and CoinMarketCap data, Binance estimated that about $155 billion in tokens will be unlocked from 2024 to 2030.

The exchange noted that the number of tokens set to be released will put significant sell pressure on the market without a corresponding increase in demand and capital flows.