Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: A bombshell WSJ article stating that the federal government is investigating Tether has the space in a frenzy after the CEO denies any investigation, traders see a bullish future with current election odds, Japanese institutions continue to push for crypto ETFs, and more

Happy Monday, let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 10/27/2024. Data per CoinMarketCap.

Market Snapshots

  • Bitcoin and Ethereum tacked on an extra +1.5% over the weekend but markets seem to have settled in anticipation of what happens with the election

  • Polygon (POL) has now reached a critical three-year support level, raising questions about whether a major comeback is possible (CM)

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • Tether denied a recent WSJ report that the US government was investigating the stablecoin issuer (CS)

  • UK central bank digital currency ‘Britcoin’ will not replace cash in the UK (BBG)

  • US prosecutors plan to offer a plea deal to the man accused of hacking the SEC’s X account BBG

  • FTX agreed to a $228M settlement with the Bybit exchange that will allow FTX to withdraw $175M in digital assets held on Bybit (CT) 

  • Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 network Base outranked all other blockchain networks in one-day stablecoin volume (TB)

  • Taiwan Semiconductors halted chip shipments to Xiamen Sophgo, a Chinese semiconductor firm linked with Bitcoin miner Bitmain (CG)

  • Peter Todd says he isn't in hiding after being fingered as Satoshi Nakamoto, but taking 'Security Measures' (DC)

  • Bitcoin options traders are positioning for a bullish trajectory in the days after the US election (TB)

  • Microsoft urges shareholders to vote against a proposal to assess Bitcoin as a diversification investment (CD)

VaultCraft launches V2, TVL skyrockets above $100M

VaultCraft launches V2, partners with Safe, and secures $100M+ in Bitcoin

  • Matrixport, Asia’s leading crypto providers, commits $100M+ in Bitcoin

  • OKX Web3 to launch Safe Smart Vaults with $250K+ in rewards

Earn Now

Venture Capital

  • Hypercasual Finance, has raised $4 million in a builder round from builders such as Sushiswap, Alliance, and Orange DAO. (CD)

  • Zerobase, the real-time ZK prover network rolled out by Salus, raised $5M to create a privacy-preserving compute network tailored for ZK use cases (CD)

  • Yala, a liquidity protocol and stablecoin issuer for Bitcoin, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures (CD)

Regulation

  • Russia published a new crypto law expanding government oversight of crypto assets to mining and related infrastructure (NB)

  • A coalition of Japanese financial and crypto firms is pushing for regulators to allow crypto ETFs (CS) 

  • South Korea plans to regulate cross-border crypto transactions by late 2025 (CS)

Launches

  • Gaming technology startup ‘Improbable’ has announced plans to develop its own layer-1 blockchain, Somnia (DC)

  • Lightspark, a company that builds infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Announces New Bitcoin L2 and Upgraded UMA Capabilities (BM)

Cybersecurity

  • The hacker that stole ~$20M from a US government crypto wallet returned $19.3M (CR)

  • Scammers who allegedly stole 4,100 Bitcoin were charged in US court with wire fraud (CS)

  • Crypto exchange BingX released an update geared toward improving the platform’s security after a recent $52M cyber attack (YF)

  • The hacker who exploited DeFi lender Radiant Capital transferred $52M to Ethereum (TT)

  • The hacker of crypto payments firm Transak gained access to the personalized information of 92,554 users (DH)

  • Aark Digital is offering a $225K bounty for the hacker to return $1.5M stolen from the crypto project (CP) 

  • Solana token launchpad Pump.fun’s attacker is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea (DC) 

  • Aark Digital Offers 15% Bounty to Hacker Responsible for $1.5M Attack on Vaults (CP)

Chart of the Day

Meme Dump

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