Hi! In today’s edition:
🔥 After months of teasing, the SEC may be about to show crypto its hand
🏛️ Vanguard is making a hire that would have been unthinkable a year ago
🏦 Kraken is chasing a European status no crypto exchange has ever held
The SEC's Crypto Rulebook Is Almost Here
The SEC is preparing to propose its long anticipated crypto-specific rule as soon as this month, according to an updated regulatory agenda Tuesday. The framework would carve out exemptions and safe harbors for token fundraising.
Chair Paul Atkins first outlined the plan in March. It would let early-stage projects raise roughly $5 million over four years, allow larger raises up to $75 million annually, and shield tokens from securities rules once their creators stop steering the project.
The move comes as Congress's CLARITY Act, a broader bill on crypto market structure, faces what is widely seen as a do-or-die stretch in the Senate before the August recess. If it stalls, the SEC's rule becomes the industry's clearest regulatory path. The proposal still sits at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review before publication.
Vanguard's Crypto Resistance Is Cracking
Vanguard, long the most crypto-averse of the big asset managers, is hiring its first-ever head of digital assets. The $10 trillion firm posted the role Monday within its Personal Wealth division, tasking the executive with building a multi-year strategy across tokenization, stablecoins, and custody.
Vanguard has somewhat softened its stance on crypto since late last year, letting clients trade crypto ETFs. The company initially blocked the products on its brokerage platform when they launched in 2024 and as it has long dismissed crypto as speculative.
Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji ran BlackRock's iShares business, where he helped launch one of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs before joining Vanguard in July 2024.
Kraken Wants to Be a European Bank
Kraken is pursuing a full banking license in Europe, with Lithuania as the target jurisdiction, CoinDesk reports, citing a person familiar with the plans. If it succeeds, Kraken would become the only crypto exchange to hold such a designation.
The exchange would follow the path of fintech Revolut, which won a specialized Lithuanian banking license in 2018 and used it to offer current accounts, consumer lending, and stock trading across the EU.
The move fits a broader licensing sprint by parent company Payward. In March, Kraken's banking arm became the first crypto firm to win a Federal Reserve master account, and in May it secured an authorization in the UAE. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi has said the plan is to collect licenses region by region over the next decade.
⏰ UNEASY MONEY LIVE ⏰
Vitalik Buterin's new Lean Ethereum strawman leans on enshrined STARK verification, quantum safe crypto, and one or two round finality.
Austin Griffith of Ethereum Foundation joins Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack it, alongside Strategy's latest Bitcoin sale, a $6 million flash loan exploit at Summer Finance, and Tether's native USDT launch on Bitcoin.
Today at 4pm ET.
🇬🇧 Coinbase secured a UK investment license from the Financial Conduct Authority, letting British retail users trade stocks on the platform for the first time and opening crypto, equity, and commodity perpetual futures to institutional traders.
🏦 Gemini launched commission-free stock trading for U.S. customers, letting users buy thousands of exchange-listed securities from its app as it pushes to become an "all-in-one financial super app."
📈 Ondo Finance launched a perps platform that lets traders post tokenized stocks as collateral, a first for perpetual futures, with up to 20x leverage on U.S. equities for non-U.S. users.
₿ Jack Mallers' Strike rolled out volatility-proof loans that remove margin calls and price liquidations on bitcoin-backed borrowing, though missed payments can still trigger partial liquidation after a 10-day grace period.
⚖️ Kraken won a $22 million arbitration award against auditor Mazars USA, which quit the exchange's nearly finished 2022 audit amid the industry's "Operation Choke Point 2.0" banking pressure.
🔮 Polymarket was sued by two traders who allege it wrongly resolved a market on whether Strategy sold bitcoin by May 31, denying them about $797,000 in winnings after the company's SEC filing confirmed a 32 BTC sale.
🔒 Zcash is nearing a mathematical proof that its new Ironwood shielded pool contains no undetectable counterfeiting bugs, news that helped push ZEC up more than 12% and back above $500.
🇰🇷 Dunamu delayed its stock swap with Naver Financial for a second time, pushing the roughly $10 billion deal to Dec. 31 as South Korea debates a crypto law that could cap exchange ownership stakes.
🏀 BIG3 is facing a class action from NFT buyers who paid up to $25,000 each expecting team ownership rights, alleging Ice Cube's basketball league sold unregistered securities and never delivered the promised perks.
🏦 EDX Markets closed a $76 million Series C led by SBI Holdings, funding the institutional crypto venue's push to expand trading, clearing, and settlement as it pursues a national trust bank charter.
💵 Tether invested $20 million in a growth round for Mercado Bitcoin, backing the Brazilian platform's expansion across tokenization, payments, and credit amid Latin America's tokenization boom.
🤖 KOR Protocol raised $7.5 million in a Series A led by 1kx and Blockchain Capital at a $100 million valuation, building a blockchain "clearinghouse" for creative and entertainment IP in the AI era.
Jeff Park: Before the Breakthrough
Everett Randle: The Task Economy - Data will be the next $1 Trillion Category
