CFTC Opens Path for Offshore Crypto Exchanges to Return

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🛑 Offshore exchanges finally get a way back into the U.S.

• 🔗 GDP data goes onchain

• 🪙 Tether brings USDT to Bitcoin wallets through RGB

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CFTC Sets Path for Offshore Crypto Derivatives Exchanges to Return to U.S.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has released new guidelines clarifying how offshore exchanges, including those offering crypto derivatives, can legally serve U.S. customers through the Foreign Board of Trade (FBOT) registration framework.

Non-U.S. exchanges must submit an application to the CFTC following the regulator’s Part 48 rules, demonstrating compliance with oversight, transparency, and customer protection standards.

Only upon approval may these platforms legally grant U.S. residents direct trading access to their systems.

The new guidelines mean that major platforms like Binance that were forced offshore now have a defined way to legally serve U.S. traders again, potentially boosting liquidity and reducing fragmentation in the crypto markets.

Acting CFTC Chair Caroline D. Pham said that, after being driven offshore by the “unprecedented regulation-by-enforcement approach of the past several years,” firms “now have a path back to U.S. markets.”

The move is part of a broader “crypto sprint” regulatory overhaul, aiming to support responsible innovation and give U.S. users more trading choices under CFTC safeguards.

U.S. Government Partners With Chainlink, Pyth and Kraken to Publish Economic Data Onchain

The  U.S. Department of Commerce published the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Q2 GDP data on nine blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche.

The department partnered with blockchain oracle providers Chainlink and Pyth Network, as well as crypto exchange Kraken, to publish the economic data onchain.

Chainlink’s native token LINK surged 12% to an intraday high of $25.90 on the news, before retracing to around $24.12 as of early Friday morning. Meanwhile, Pyth’s native token PYTH skyrocketed 94% higher, and continued to trade at a five-month high of $0.22.

Kraken said it had assisted the U.S. government with procuring the native tokens required to pay for transaction fees when publishing the cryptographic proofs of GDP data.

“We commend President Trump and Secretary Lutnick for their vision in bringing this initiative to life, and we are honored to play a role in its execution,” said Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi.

Tether to Launch USDT on Bitcoin via RGB Protocol

Tether plans to launch its stablecoin USDT on Bitcoin using the RGB protocol, which will enable stablecoin transactions "natively" on Bitcoin.

The integration is designed to allow users to hold and transact both Bitcoin and Tether USDT from the same wallet, potentially using Lightning Network features for fast, affordable transactions.

RGB is an open-source protocol that enables asset issuance directly on Bitcoin without modifying Bitcoin’s core protocol. It supports “client-side validated” smart contracts that use Bitcoin’s consensus only for settlement, keeping state transitions private and off-chain.

USDT/BTC remains one of the most liquid, widely used trading pairs in the crypto ecosystem. Tether claims that native integration of USDT on Bitcoin would open new possibilities for stable, dollar-denominated payments secured by the Bitcoin network.

However, X user Grim suggested that Tether’s claim of native USDT on Bitcoin was “false and misleading” because RGB is not a true Bitcoin layer 2.

“To call it ‘native Bitcoin’ is no more accurate than calling Lightning native Bitcoin: both are secured by Bitcoin, but both live on different architectural planes,” said Grim.

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• ⚖️ Eliza Labs sued Elon Musk’s X Corp in San Francisco, alleging the platform copied its AI tech, demanded $600,000 annual license fees, and then banned its accounts to crush competition, despite Eliza’s open-source protocol reaching a $2.5 billion valuation.

• 🐉 Speaking at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong, Eric Trump called China “a hell of a power” in crypto despite its 2021 trading ban, predicted bitcoin would reach $1 million “in the next few years,” and urged investors to buy and hold while U.S.-China talks loom.

• 💹 American Bitcoin, 80% owned by Hut 8 and backed by Trump’s sons plus Winklevoss twins’ BTC investment, nears completion of its Gryphon merger and is preparing for a September Nasdaq listing under ticker ABTC with 215 BTC already on its books.

• 🔄 Withdrawals from Ethereum’s native staking shifted into liquid restaking platforms like EtherFi and Eigenpie, driving $30B in deposits this year as validators sought higher yields and flexible liquidity instead of locking up ETH long term.

• 💳 Rain, a Visa-powered stablecoin payments firm, closed $58 million from investors including Samsung and Sapphire to expand its infrastructure for banks and fintechs issuing stablecoin-based cards and wallets, lifting its total funding to $88.5 million.

• 🌍 Bitcoin-first protocol Portal garnered $50 million to expand BitScaler, its system for non-custodial cross-chain trading, with a vision of making Bitcoin the security anchor for tokenized stocks, bonds, and stablecoins worldwide.

• 💵 Stablecoin startup M0 raised $40 million from backers like Polychain and Ribbit, bringing total funding near $100 million as it builds a shared layer to connect issuers like Tether and Circle and solve liquidity fragmentation.

• ⚡ Former Jump Trading engineers secured $20 million for aPriori, a DeFi trading startup applying high-frequency strategies to narrow spreads, curb MEV losses, and boost yields through products like liquid staking and its AI DEX aggregator Swapr.

1. Human Rights Foundation: Financial Freedom Report #87

2. Fortune: Crypto hoarding brings a stock pop for small firms—and in some cases shows patterns of possible insider trading