Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Markets negatively react to tariffs, PayPal expands cryptocurrency offerings, Sony establishes partnership to allow crypto payments, Lazarus Group is still extremely active, over 50% of U.S. states are onboard the bitcoin reserve train, and so much more below.

Hopefully you’re finishing the week stronger than the markets. Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

As of 04/03/2025. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • Investors panic and markets tank as Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariffs, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each falling 3.4% and 3.8% respectively. The overall market lost $2T+ of value in less than 28 hours.

    • In fact, the U.S. stock market had its worst day in 4 years 😅

    • Crypto markets followed as Bitcoin drops below $82k and Ethereum below $1.7k

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • Sony to start accepting USDC payments through new partnership with Crypto.com (CMC)

  • Justin Sun accused First Digital Trust misappropriating $500M of funds (TD)

  • Paul Atkin’s inches closer to SEC Chair position with 13-11 vote (DT)

  • Bitwise creates 3 new crypto ETFs to minimize volatility and focus on monthly income (CS)

  • Former Rippling employee received $5,000 in ETH to spy on HR software competitor, Deel (DT)

  • Cardano Foundation announces new digital identity platform, Veridian (TB)

  • KuCoin leads exchange innovation and compliance crossing 40M users (CD)

  • National Cryptocurrency Association reports majority of crypto holders are tech and construction workers (TD)

  • Ethereum BLOB fees drop 73% following Dencun upgrade (TD)

  • Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo previously took a paid advisory role with offshore exchange OKX (TD)

  • Treasure DAO restructures due to financial crisis, including shutting down multiple projects (CC)

  • Uniswap DAO approves $111M program boost in a preliminary vote (TD)

  • PayPal expands crypto services with Solana and Chainlink payments in the U.S. (TB)

  • Crypto donations estimated to top $2.5B in 2025 (CT)

A Message from NAME

The US National debt increased by $300,000 while you read this sentence.

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M&A Announcements

  • Republic subsidiary set to acquire INX trading for up to $60M (TB)

Launches

  • Babylon, a bitcoin staking protocol, reveals $BABY airdrop (DT)

Venture Capital

  • Ultra announces $12M funding round from family office NOIA Capital for web3 gaming (UL)

  • Luxury fragmented investment platform Collecto raises €2.8M seed round from well known European angels (CC)

  • Bloctopus raises $1M to improve dapp development tools, including investors Hivemind Capital, Iron Key Ventures, and Techstars (PN)

  • NodeFoundry AI completes $1M seed fundraise from an angel syndicate (KT)

  • A new web3 startup that raised money from undisclosed VCs aims to make an impact with the new tariff trade war (TC)

  • Venture fund research finds bitcoin-native startup investments increased nearly 800% in 4 years (CD)

Regulation

  • A re-introduced anti-CBDC bill passes through the House Financial Services Committee (TB)

  • Alabama and Minnesota join 24 other states in bitcoin reserve bill (CT)

  • The state of Illinois officially drops lawsuit against Coinbase (CD)

  • Finland to enforce tighter crypto regulations under MiCA rulings (HT)

  • Changpeng Zhao and Kyrgyz president signed an MoU to improve blockchain infrastructure in Kyrgyzstan (CS)

Cybersecurity

  • Cheap counterfeit phones are being sold loaded with crypto stealing malware (DT)

  • On-chain data reveals Lazarus Group profited over $2.5M in wrapped bitcoin hack (CS)

  • Bybit takes significant security precautions with new partner Zodia Custody (CS)

Extra Reads

  • Stablecoin issuer Circle is gearing up for a huge IPO

Here’s 5 takeaway every potential investor should know

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