BNB Surges Past XRP as ICE Bets $2B on Polymarket

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🚀 BNB dethrones XRP after 31% rally and record activity

• 🏦 NYSE parent ICE makes $2B Polymarket power play

• 📈 S&P blends Wall Street + Web3 in new digital index

• 💼 Forward’s zero-fee Solana validator raises centralization debate

• 🎙️ Bitcoin Core vs Knots heats up

• 🎧 Bits + Bips on the debasement trade

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BNB Flips XRP to Become Third-Largest Crypto by Market Cap

BNB Chain’s native token BNB has flipped XRP to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

BNB claimed its new rank after rallying 31% in the last week and hitting a new record high of $1,336 on Tuesday.

The rally comes amid heightened activity on BNB Chain, with the network’s monthly active addresses growing to 57.8 million, outpacing Solana’s 38.5 million active addresses over the same period.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s family office YZi Labs attributed this growth to growing onchain engagements from projects like Aster, the fast-growing decentralized exchange that has faced scrutiny over alleged artificially inflated trading volumes. 

Some of that activity was likely driven by memecoins. Onchain analytics platform Bubblemaps noted that over 100,000 onchain traders bought into new BNB-based memecoins, and 70% of them are in profit.

BNB also had another positive catalyst on Tuesday in the form of a digital asset treasury purchase. CEA Industries announced that it now holds 480,000 BNB tokens, taking its total value of crypto and cash to $663 million. 

In related news, YZi Labs launched a $1 billion fund to back BNB Chain projects in fields like artificial intelligence, finance, and biotech, positioning the network as a hub for open and community-owned innovation.

Intercontinental Exchange to Invest $2 Billion in Polymarket

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced a strategic investment of $2 billion in crypto-based prediction market platform Polymarket.

Polymarket confirmed the strategic investment, which came at a $9 billion post-money valuation, after the New York Times first reported the deal. 

“Together, we’re building the next evolution of markets…This is just the beginning,” said Polymarket on X. 

Alongside the cash investment, ICE will become a global distributor of Polymarket's event-driven data and will partner with Polymarket on future tokenization initiatives.

The deal comes as Polymarket prepares for its return to the U.S. market after being effectively banned by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022 due to regulatory issues.

S&P Launches New Index Merging Stocks and Crypto

S&P Global has unveiled the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, a comprehensive benchmark that merges 15 major crypto assets with 35 publicly traded companies involved in crypto-related activities like blockchain infrastructure and financial services.

The index aims to provide diversified, rules-based exposure to both crypto tokens and blockchain-linked equities in a single product.

Developed in collaboration with blockchain firm Dinari, the index will have a 5% cap on individual asset weights and follow quarterly rebalancing under S&P's governance framework. 

Dinari will also issue a token tracking the index, allowing investors to access it through onchain instruments.

“Cryptocurrencies and the broader digital asset industry have moved from the margins into a more established role in global markets,” said Cameron Drinkwater, chief product and operations officer at S&P DJI.

“From North America to Europe to Asia, market participants are beginning to treat digital assets as part of their investment toolkit.”

Forward Industries Launches Zero-Fee Solana Validator

Solana treasury firm Forward Industries has launched an institutional-grade Solana validator node operating with zero commission fees, enabling investors to stake to the node at no cost. 

The validator is powered by DoubleZero, a high-performance global network built for distributed systems, and uses Jump Crypto’s Firedancer client, developed in collaboration with Galaxy.

Forward Industries backed the validator with over 6.8 million SOL tokens from its treasury and recently completed a $1.65 billion private investment in public equity financing led by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.

Some members of the Solana community hailed the move as one that would attract even more institutional interest, while others questioned whether the deployment would introduce centralization risks to the network.

Bitcoin Core vs Knots: Why Developers Are Fighting Over a Coming Change

Bitcoin may have just reached an all-time high, but a big fight has been brewing over whether to allow NFTs, memecoins or L2 capability on Bitcoin or to limit such transactions.

On Monday, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $126,000, but Bitcoin’s biggest fight right now isn’t about price; it’s about purpose.

Since 2023, image files and meme tokens have clogged the network, spiking fees and making everyday payments expensive. Bitcoin Core wants to lift an 80-byte data limit that’s existed since 2014. Bitcoin Knots disagrees — and has built code to enforce a different limit. Should Bitcoin stay a payments network, or evolve into a platform that stores everything from NFTs to memecoins to experimental layer 2 protocols?

Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin and Lightning developer Chris Guida debate whether removing limits on OP_RETURN protects Bitcoin from what they call “spam,” or opens the floodgates to it.

Plus: the real lesson from 2014 when Vitalik Buterin left Bitcoin, why miners can bypass any filter by renting hash rate, and whether 22% of nodes running different code actually matters in a decentralized network.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Bits + Bips: BTC Broke ATHs, But Euphoria Has Not Peaked Yet

If elation was this muted over the latest Bitcoin record, how much higher can crypto go?

Bitcoin just hit a new all-time high, but according to the Bits + Bips crew, we’re not even close to euphoria. 

In this episode, Lumida’s Ram Ahluwalia, FalconX’s Joshua Lim, and NYU professor Austin Campbell break down what’s actually fueling this rally, from “animal spirits” and asset revaluations to the global macro forces shaping crypto’s next leg up.

They debate whether this is really a “debasement trade” or just FOMO in disguise, when the true blow-off top might arrive, and what kind of shock could finally take bitcoin down. 

Plus, they tackle Coinbase’s banking ambitions and whether greed in DeFi could lead to the next systemic risk.

• 🦅 Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company behind Donald Trump’s memecoin, began raising at least $200 million—with ambitions up to $1 billion—to build a digital asset treasury aimed at stockpiling the token, which has plunged to about $8 from January’s $44 high.

• 📜 SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency still plans to introduce a long-awaited “innovation exemption” by late 2025 or early 2026 to allow companies to test blockchain and digital asset projects under clearer rules, despite delays caused by the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

• 📈 BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, became the firm’s most profitable fund just 21 months after launch, generating $244.5 million yearly and nearing $100 billion in assets—outpacing legacy ETFs that took decades to reach similar scale.

• ⚡ ZKsync launched its “Atlas” upgrade to boost blockchain performance for corporations and financial institutions, adding a new system capable of up to 30,000 transactions per second and tools that link private enterprise chains with global markets.

• 🕵️‍♂️ Blockchain firm Elliptic reported that North Korean hackers have stolen over $2 billion in crypto so far this year—nearly triple 2024’s haul—with the funds allegedly funneled into Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, marking the regime’s most aggressive cyber theft campaign to date.

• 💻 BNY Mellon, the world’s biggest custodian bank, is exploring tokenized deposits to modernize its $2.5 trillion daily payment operations and compete with peers like JPMorgan and HSBC, testing instant, borderless settlement systems.

• 🛡️ Bitcoin-focused life insurer Meanwhile raised $82 million from major investors like Bain Capital and Haun Ventures to expand its crypto-denominated insurance business, which lets clients borrow against Bitcoin policies with tax benefits.

• 🏥 Bitcoin treasury firm KindlyMD partnered with crypto company Antalpha to issue $250 million in convertible debt, aiming to grow its Bitcoin holdings and stabilize finances after a steep stock drop while reinforcing its focus on Bitcoin-backed corporate funding.

1. Entrepreneur: Why Everyday Transactions, Not Wall Street, Will Drive Crypto Adoption

2. On-Chain Mind: Bitcoin Awakens — But What’s Next?

3. The Real Alt Season is in Crypto Equities by Variant Fund’s Alana Levin