Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: One of the countries most prestigious universities looks to add crypto to its balance sheet, the US moves to ban Cambodia's Huione over alleged money laundering through billions worth of crypto, a firm wants to invest more than their own nations GDP worth of money into a blockchain hub, Senator Lummis continues to say her crypto bill could wipe our debt, and much more.

Happy Monday – let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

  • Bitcoin experienced a net decline of approximately -2.2% over the weekend

    • Despite this, it maintained a strong position around the $94,000–$95,000 range – notably, on Saturday, a surge in trading volume and a bullish crossover in the MACD indicator suggested renewed buying interest

    • the broader crypto market maintained a capitalization of approximately $2.97T, with Bitcoin holding a 63.9% dominance

  • ETH mirrored BTC’s weekend pattern, with a total drop of about -1.4%. Trading volumes peaked on Saturday, and on-chain data indicated a 7% increase in active addresses, signaling heightened network activity

  • Among the altcoins, Litecoin stood out with a nearly +2% gain, while Solana and Uniswap saw modest increases

  • The weekend's subdued price movements followed a vibrant week highlighted by the Token2049 conference in Dubai, which emphasized a resurgence in crypto optimism

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • The Ivy League’s Brown University has millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin exposure according to a new 13F-HR filing with the SEC – see the details of the massive investment here

  • Apple has made changes to iOS app developer guidelines following a court ruling this week that has massive implications for all external payments methods, crypto apps, and NFTs (DE)

  • From house arrest to champagne raves: crypto’s wild comeback in Dubai was highlighted at the Token2049 conference in Dubai – here’s the full rundown of what went down here

  • Movement Labs suspends co-founder Rushi Manche after Coinbase delists MOVE token (CD)

  • Kraken confirms NinjaTrader acquisition as Q1 revenue report shocks investors (CT)

  • Gold-backed crypto minting hits 3-year high as central bank gold buying declines (CD)

  • Senator Lummis says Trump supports her Bitcoin bill aimed at wiping out U.S. debt (BM)

  • Bybit CEO says users can soon trade stocks, indexes, gold, and oil directly on the platform by the end of the quarter (CT)

  • A tiny firm plans $20M Trump Token purchase to influence U.S.-Mexico trade policy (CD)

  • Focus Tree, a student productivity app, is onboarding 1,000s of new users to Starknet (X)

  • CME Group crypto derivatives volume jumps 129% in April, led by ETH contracts (CD)

  • MetaPlanet issues $25M in bonds to buy more Bitcoin (CD)

  • UK set to ban crypto purchases using credit cards (DE)

  • Riot Platforms posts mixed Q1 earnings results with $161.39M in the quarter, slightly beating analysts’ expectations – read full earnings breakdown here

  • Pudgy Penguin #6873, the only left-facing Pengu, resold for 200 ETH or ~$360k USD (X)

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Venture Capital

  • MBS Global to Invest $8.8B in Maldives blockchain hub, exceeding nation's GDP (TD)

  • Adtech firm Thumzup seeks $200M from outside investors to 100x size of its Bitcoin treasury (TB)

  • Crypto venture funding reached $4.9B in the first quarter of 2025 (CS)

Launches

  • Nasdaq-listed Fr8Tech to launch $20M Trump Treasury to support U.S.-Mexico trade fairness (TB)

  • Coinbase Wallet launched its early limited beta (X)

  • Gnosis Chain has successfully rolled out its version of Ethereum’s much-anticipated Pectra upgrade (TB)

  • Paperview, a new gating app for photos and videos, launched on Base (X)

  • Gaming operating system Playtron, with help platforms M0 and Bridge, plans to roll out Game Dollar – a programmable stablecoin for gaming ecosystems (TB)

Regulation

  • Arizona governor vetoes Bitcoin reserve bill, calls crypto an untested investment (CD)

  • Blockchain Association urges SEC to adopt ‘flexible approach’ to crypto regulations (TB)

  • Senate Majority Leader fast-tracks vote on landmark stablecoin legislation (DE)

Cybersecurity

  • Huione Group, the Cambodia-based conglomerate, received $98B worth of crypto since 2014 through illicit schemes like money laundering, pig butchering and online scams (CD)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

NYDIG Research suggests that a "10x money multiplier" could lead to a $42,000 increase per bitcoin, based on current market dynamics – full report on why here

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