- Ripple reportedly made a bid for Circle: Circle rejected the offer, which reportedly came in between $4 billion and $5 billion — roughly the same valuation Circle is reportedly chasing in its potential IPO. Though Ripple has been making expansion plays lately and seeking to boost its own stablecoin, RLUSD, acquiring Circle would amount easily be one of the most consequential deals in the crypto world to date.
- U.K. releases long-promised draft crypto regulations: Perhaps “rough draft” is better descriptor. The draft, in my view, is a bit light on specifics (the final draft and rules implementation are targeted for the end of this year or early next) — at bottom, they define four activities that would fall under the Financial Conduct Authority’s jurisdiction: issuing a certain stablecoins; custody services; running an exchange; and acting as a broker/dealer. Notably, though, DeFi is excluded from the scope of the regs. But whats really interesting is that, in announcing the rules, the finance ministry said that it intends to pursue greater cooperation with the U.S. in implementing our respective regulatory regimes. So we may see a U.S.-U.K. crypto bloc — and the E.U. — which is just getting started implementing MiCA — having to align more with the U.S. and U.K. regs to remain competitive.
- Coinbase launching bitcoin yield fund: The exchange in looking to hit returns of 4-8% in the fund, which launched this week for non-U.S. institutional investors and will pay yield in bitcoin. The fund looks to achieve its targets through an arbitrage strategy based on the difference in price between bitcoin’s spot and derivatives markets. So, in essence, institutional bitcoin holders can receive staking-like rewards in an asset that doesn’t offer built-in earn.
- Mastercard offers stablecoin settlement for merchants: Call it an inevitable development. The payments giant thinks stablecoins are “essential solutions” for payments, disbursements, and remittances — and they’re looking to make stablecoin payments as easy as possible. Launch partners include OKX, Nuvei, and Circle. We’re hearing so much news like this lately, and it’s only going to get more commonplace. At this point, no one — traditional and emerging players alike — can avoid stablecoin-supported payments.
- SEC drops PYUSD investigation: The probe began in November 2023 — a lifetime ago in crypto years — and would have been difficult to justify given that stablecoin legislation is around the corner (not to mention the SEC’s about-face over the last three months). PayPal has been looking to increase PYUSD adoption lately, announcing rewards on PYUSD holdings and an expansion of its partnership with Coinbase.
- MGX used World Liberty Financial's stablecoin for $2 billion Binance investment: We already knew about the investment — just not that Abu Dhabi’s MGX used WLF’s stablecoin, USD1, for the deal. USD1, which has a $2.1 billion market cap, runs on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. So as the Administration pushes for crypto regulations in the U.S., the President’s family grows ever closer to the industry itself.
