Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Mastercard makes a massive partnership with a Layer 2, crypto in the mortgage qualification process might be here soon, Peter Thiel is on the move with another massive raise, big finance is starting to dip its toes into crypto venture capital rounds, Ledger announces a physical card key, and much more

Happy Wednesday, Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

  • Bitcoin's price surged past $106,000 as geopolitical tensions eased following a ceasefire between Israel and Iran

  • Institutional demand and macro liquidity cycles are increasingly defining Bitcoin's market behavior, according to analysts

  • The total crypto market cap increased +4% over the past 24 hours to around $3.39T

    • U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $350M in inflows on June 23

    • Meanwhile, spot ETH ETFs attracted $101M in inflows, according to SoSoValue data

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • Fed Chair Powell endorses US crypto legislation as a “great thing,” signaling institutional support – his full statements here

  • Mastercard partners with Chainlink to "enable billions of cardholders to purchase crypto directly onchain" (CT)

  • NYSE files rule change to list Trump Bitcoin Ethereum ETF (DE)

  • Democratic Senator Adam Schiff introduces bill targeting Trump’s crypto ties – a full breakdown of the bill here

  • Celestia founder defends team amid dumping allegations in Twitter controversy after alleged insider dumping and a 95% token drawdown (CT)

  • Fiserv plans to launch a stablecoin and platform for its clients, which include roughly 3,000 regional and community banks (WSJ)

  • NYC Mayor Eric Adams proposes holding Bitcoin in city reserves, while Robinhood CEO says crypto will replace cash (TD)

  • Central bank body BIS delivers stark stablecoin warning (RT)

  • A look at the new Spurs jerseys featuring Ledger ’s sponsorship patch (X)

  • U.S. housing authorities discuss crypto qualifications for mortgage borrowers (TB)

  • Taxis in the UAE are no accepting crypto (CR)

  • Dino tokens are outperforming AI and DeFi assets in 2025, says Delphi Digital (TD)

  • Circle’s USDC receives neutral rating from Compass Point, causing mixed sentiment on a red day for the stock (DE)

  • Nano Labs plans USD 1B BNB treasury in a major Web3 push (TD)

  • Digital Asset raises $135M to expand its institutional Canton blockchain solution (TD)

  • Aptos Labs and Jump Crypto unveil “Shelby” initiative to boost Web3 tooling (BW)

  • Nano Labs issues $500M in convertible notes to build BNB treasury (CT)

  • Hut 8 doubles Bitcoin-backed credit line with Coinbase Credit to $130M at fixed rate (TB)

  • Amazing AI adopts Bitcoin treasury policy to support corporate crypto strategy (BM)

Venture Capital

  • Polymarket nears $200M raise led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund (TD)

  • Blockchain development company Digital Asset, raised $135M from large financial firms including Citadel Securities, DRW Venture Capital, Tradeweb Markets, IMC, Optiver, Goldman Sachs and Virtu Financial (BBG)

  • French semiconductor maker Sequans plans $384M raise to build Bitcoin treasury strategy (TD)

  • Veda, a DeFi vault platform, raised an $18M round led by CoinFund (PRN)

  • MegaETH DEX GTE raises $15M in funding round led by Paradigm (TD)

  • DeFi infrastructure firm Yield.xyz has exited stealth with a $5M round from Multicoin Capital (BW)

  • Hivemapper, a decentralized mapping network, received a strategic investment from Ajna Capital (PRN)

M&A Announcements

  • Synaptogenix, a biopharmaceutical company, acquires Bittensor’s TAO token to build AI-crypto integrated treasury (TD)

  • The Smarter Web Company expands Bitcoin treasury with a $15.2M purchase (BM)

  • Sharplink Gaming adds $4.61M in Ethereum to its treasury (DE)

Launches

  • Ledger announces the 'Ledger Recovery Key'- a PIN-protected physical card enabling storage & recovery of your 24 words with just a few taps (X)

  • Lightning Labs releases Taproot Assets v0.6 with enhancements for stablecoin support on Bitcoin (BM)

Regulation

  • Panelists at U.S. Senate banking hearing on crypto market structure call for regulation 'ASAP' (BM)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

A look at the stablecoin market cap globally

Meme Dump

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