The Block
Quick Take Kraken CEO David Ripley shares how Kraken is expanding its product suite to meet growing institutional demand.
Quick Take Rep. John Rose introduced his bill on Thursday, calling it the Bridging Regulation and Innovation for Digital Global and Electronic Digital Assets, or the “BRIDGE” Digital Assets Act. Rose said the purpose of the committee would be for the SEC and CFTC to give advice on their rules and regulations related to crypto.
Quick Take House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and two other Republican lawmakers asked SEC Chair Gensler to hand over documents involving the agency’s consideration of political idealogy for prospective employees. Lawmakers said they found out about the SEC’s potentially unlawful hiring practices in an email correspondence between Gensler and Dr. Haoxiang Zhu, the SEC’s director of trading and markets.
eToro settles with the SEC for $1.5 million and agrees to pare back its crypto arm significantly.Grayscale launches a new XRP closed-end fund, seeing the cryptocurrency jump 8%.Standard Chartered says bitcoin’s price could hit a record high by year-end, regardless of the U.S. election outcome.The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Coinbase attributes ether’s underperformance compared to its peers to the idiosyncratic market structure of the cryptocurrency sector.The Coinbase analyst pointed to factors such as investors crowding into altcoins and the difficulty of exiting positions as contributing to ETH’s underperformance.
Quick Take CFTC swiftly appeals judge’s decision allowing Kalshi’s election contracts to proceed. Judge rules CFTC overstepped by blocking Kalshi’s congressional election contracts. CFTC warns election contracts could undermine confidence in election integrity.
Cypherpunk Holdings is doubling down on its strategy to buy and stake Solana’s native token and rebrand to SOL Strategies.The firm now holds over 86,000 SOL and is running a validator that has earned about $57,000 in staking rewards as of June.
Quick Take Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, withdraws bid to void his sentence after disputes over U.S. investigation of partner Michelle Bond. Salame’s lawyers claim prosecutors coerced his guilty plea by promising not to investigate Bond, now facing charges. Judge Kaplan called Salame’s arguments “ambiguous” and may impose sanctions following his plea withdrawal.
Quick Take Infinit raised $6 million in a funding round involving Electric Capital, Mirana Ventures, Hashed, and Arthur Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom.
Quick Take Kalshi’s contracts do not involve “unlawful activity or gaming,” said Judge Jia M. Cobb for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in an order posted on Thursday. “This case is not about whether the Court likes Kalshi’s product or thinks trading it is a good idea,” the judge said.
