According to the Financial Times, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires plan to set up a bank called Erebor, focusing on serving startups in the fields of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and defense technology. Erebor has applied for a national banking license from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The bank aims to fill the market gap left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). It is reported that SVB has provided services to cryptocurrency companies and other venture-backed startups including BlockFi, Circle and Avalanche, but went bankrupt in 2023 due to financial investment mistakes. Erebor was led by Palmer Luckey, co-founder of defense technology company Anduril, and supported by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and Founder Fund founded by Thiel. The two co-CEOs are Owen Rapaport, co-founder of software company Argus, and Jacob Hirshman, former Circle consultant. Erebor plans to include stablecoins on its balance sheet, but has not yet specified the specific currency.
The share price of Hong Kong-listed company Duodian Digital Intelligence (02586) once soared by nearly 90%. As of press time, it rose by 45.38% to HK$13. According to financial reports, Duodian Digital Intelligence is preparing to apply for a stablecoin license in Hong Kong. Tang Yifan, the company's vice president and chief financial officer, said that the entry of virtual assets into the Web3 field brings huge opportunities, and the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies in global business continues to increase, and has become an important part of diversified investment. Duodian Digital Intelligence is optimistic about cryptocurrencies in the long term, has allocated Bitcoin, and actively promotes stablecoin and cryptocurrency strategies, while recruiting talents from leading companies in the industry such as Amber Exchange and Crypto.com. In addition, in February this year, Duodian Digital Intelligence signed a strategic cooperation agreement with HashKey Group, and the two parties will cooperate in depth in the fields of digital asset trading, Web3 technology development and blockchain ecosystem construction.
REX-OSPREY Solana Collateralized ETF Reaches $33 Million in First-Day Trading Volume
According to data provided by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the first Solana staking ETF (ie REX-OSPREY SOLANA ETF) SSK had a trading volume of $33 million yesterday, far exceeding the average performance of Solana futures ETFs and XRP futures ETFs and ordinary ETFs, but still lower than the trading volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs. Earlier news, REX-OSPREY SOLANA ETF has officially launched.
According to 10x Research, Bitcoin has experienced capital outflows for 98 consecutive days and is currently testing the upper limit of its consolidation range. Despite strong ETF inflows, continued declines in exchange balances, and political pressure on the Federal Reserve, Bitcoin prices have remained relatively stable. With the arrival of the traditional bull market season in July and the upcoming release of labor market data, the market may be brewing a major breakthrough. The report pointed out that the key factors supporting Bitcoin's rebound since late April have not only continued to exist, but have also received further support. Bitcoin is currently trying to break through the key $110,000 level, and low volatility provides investors with a rare opportunity to layout.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the crackdown of the largest health insurance fraud case in history, prosecuting 324 defendants involving more than $14.6 billion in false claims. These defendants include 96 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other professional medical personnel, distributed in 50 federal districts and 12 state attorneys general's offices across the United States. The operation also seized more than $245 million in cash, cryptocurrencies, luxury cars and other assets. At the same time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prevented more than $4 billion in fraudulent payments by suspending or revoking the billing authority of 205 providers. The "Golden Operation" case involved in the case accounted for $10.6 billion in fraud and was related to organized crime in Russia, Estonia and Kazakhstan. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said that she would adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards criminal acts that exploit the health insurance system for profit.
According to monitoring by Ember, user "Insider Brother" @qwatio had his short positions liquidated 8 times in a row last night, and most of his short positions of $250 million were liquidated, leaving only $43.68 million. The margin for this opening was $16.28 million, but now only $1.2 million is left, and the short operation has lost $15.08 million. However, the user is still profitable as a whole, having previously accumulated a profit of $26 million through three addresses. Even if the profit of $15.08 million is given back, there is still a profit of $10.92 million. Currently, the user's remaining short positions include 237 BTC with 40x leverage (valued at $25.82 million, opening price at $106,697, liquidation price at $111,040) and 6,948 ETH with 25x leverage (valued at $17.86 million, opening price at $2,452, liquidation price at $2,646).
Ripple applies for a US banking license after Circle, plans to provide more crypto services
Ripple submitted an application for a federal banking license to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Wednesday. If approved, Ripple will be regulated by the OCC, and its stablecoin RLUSD will also be included in the regulatory scope. In addition, Ripple plans to provide more crypto services through the banking license. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that this move is part of the company's long-term compliance strategy. If successfully approved, Ripple will achieve dual supervision at the state level (through NYDFS) and the federal level, and establish a new trust benchmark for the stablecoin market. At the same time, Ripple's subsidiary Standard Custody & Trust Company also applied for a Federal Reserve master account this week, which will enable Ripple to deposit RLUSD reserves directly with the Federal Reserve. It is worth mentioning that Circle also submitted an application for a federal banking license to the OCC on Monday, planning to serve as its reserve custodian and hold crypto assets for institutional clients. Earlier news, Circle applied for a US banking license to custody USDC reserves.
Coinbase Adds Sky (SKY) and USDS (USDS) to Listing Roadmap
According to official news, Coinbase announced that Sky (SKY) and USDS (USDS) will be added to the coin listing roadmap.
According to Bloomberg, US President Trump's wealth has undergone a dramatic shift, with cryptocurrency investments injecting at least $620 million into his assets. Although his net worth appears stable - only slightly down from $6.5 billion on election day to $6.4 billion today - a deeper analysis shows that his business empire is shifting from traditional real estate to the volatile but potentially lucrative world of digital assets.
Warning: Dozens of fake wallet plugins flood Firefox Store to steal cryptocurrency
According to BleepingComputer, security company Koi found more than 40 fake crypto wallet extensions in the official plug-in store of Firefox browser, impersonating mainstream wallets such as MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet. These malicious plug-ins steal input content of more than 30 characters (mainly for mnemonics) by implanting event monitoring code, and transmit the data back to the attacker's server. Investigations show that the phishing campaign has been going on since at least April 2025, and the group behind it is suspected to be a Russian hacker group. Malicious plug-ins not only steal genuine brand logos, but also increase credibility through a large number of fake five-star reviews. Although some users have exposed the scam through one-star reviews, the download volume of most fake plug-ins is still significantly abnormal. Although Firefox has an automated risk detection system, a large number of malicious plug-ins reported as of press time have not been removed from the shelves. Researchers remind users to check the developer information and the authenticity of the download volume when installing wallet extensions.
U.S. Treasury Secretary: Fed may cut interest rates in September or "earlier"
According to Cailian Press, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant said on Tuesday that he believes the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in September or "earlier" because the tariffs imposed by President Trump have only caused mild inflation so far. "I think the key is that tariffs have not caused inflation. If the Fed follows this standard, I think they may act earlier than September, but of course they will definitely cut before September," Bessant added, "I guess this 'tariff disorder syndrome' has even affected the Federal Reserve." He made the above remarks on Fox News' "Ingraham View" program at a time when his boss, President Trump, is increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve and Chairman Powell to cut interest rates by as much as 3 percentage points.
BounceBit to launch tokenized stock products in Q4
According to official news, BounceBit announced that it will launch tokenized stock products in the fourth quarter, covering securities in four major securities markets: the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, China, and Japan. The service is built on BounceBit's Tokenized Stock Environment (TSE), a BounceBit native framework for issuing, pricing, and integrating securities in permissionless markets. From the first day of launch, BounceBit tokenized stocks will be fully integrated into the DeFi field: spot trading, DEX liquidity, collateral in lending agreements, applications in structured income strategies, and re-pledge.
DeFi Development Corp discloses $112.5 million private placement to fund SOL purchases
According to The Block, Solana Ecosystem listed company DeFi Development Corp (stock code DFDV) disclosed details of a $112.5 million private placement, and the funds will be mainly used to increase holdings of SOL tokens. The transaction includes a "prepayment forward" stock purchase agreement, which allows investors to hedge risks by establishing short positions. According to the announcement, the convertible notes issued by the company have an annual interest rate of 5.5%, expire in 2023, and have a conversion premium of 10%. Of this, $75.6 million will be used for the aforementioned hedging transactions, and the remaining funds will be used for corporate operations and SOL acquisitions. The company's holdings at the end of May showed that it held 621,313 SOLs (approximately $107 million), and it also obtained a $5 billion credit line in June.
Belgian bank KBC to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services for retail customers
According to Cointelegraph, KBC, one of the largest banks in Belgium, plans to provide Bitcoin and Ethereum investment services to retail customers through its investment platform Bolero, which is expected to obtain regulatory approval this fall. A spokesperson for the bank said that it will focus on investor education, asset security and compliance operations to create a safe investment environment. If successfully implemented, KBC will become the first mainstream bank in Belgium to launch cryptocurrency services for retail customers.
Addentax signs $1.3 billion term sheet to acquire 12,000 bitcoins
According to PR Newswire, Nasdaq-listed clothing manufacturer Addentax Group Corp. announced that it has signed a non-binding term sheet with a major independent Bitcoin holder to purchase up to 12,000 Bitcoins, a significant increase in the potential acquisition size from the 8,000 Bitcoins initially discussed in the company's press release on May 15, 2025. Based on current market prices, the total market value of the proposed acquisition is approximately US$1.3 billion. If the transaction is completed, the transaction will be settled by issuing newly issued common shares of the company.
Financial Times: Silicon Valley tycoons want to open banks to support cryptocurrency companies
According to Xinhua News Agency, citing the Financial Times, a group of Silicon Valley billionaires have applied for a chartered bank license in the United States and are preparing to open a national bank, focusing on supporting start-ups in businesses such as cryptocurrency. People familiar with the matter said that the new bank is named after the treasure place "Erebor" in "The Lord of the Rings", and its main investors are Silicon Valley's big "financial backers" of the current Republican government in the United States, such as Peter Thiel, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale. According to the application documents disclosed earlier this week, "Erebor" Bank will be a national bank that provides traditional banking products and virtual currency-related products and services to companies and individuals. The main target customers are companies participating in the "innovation economy" in the United States, especially those in the fields of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, defense and manufacturing, as well as individuals working or investing in these companies, including those with "lack of credit channels". The bank will also seek to cooperate with non-US companies that "interest in entering the US banking system." Lone Mountain Bank will reportedly be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with an office in New York City, and will only provide online customer service.
Anchorage Digital Appointed Exclusive Custodian and Staking Provider for REX-Osprey SOL Spot ETF
According to The Block, the REX-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF launched by REX Shares and Osprey Funds has selected Anchorage Digital as the exclusive custody and staking service provider. This is the first crypto ETF in the United States to combine token exposure with staking income. It adopts the Investment Company Act of 1940 and has a management fee of 0.75%. This ETF is different from the spot BTC/ETH ETF previously registered under the 1933 Act, which requires qualified custodians to hold assets. As the only bank currently approved by the federal government to provide both custody and staking services, Anchorage will perform SOL staking operations for the ETF through cooperative verification nodes and distribute the proceeds to investors. Industry data shows that at least 60 altcoin ETF proposals are currently awaiting SEC approval.
According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin Layer2 network BOB has launched the testnet ahead of schedule, and the mainnet is scheduled to go online in the fourth quarter of 2025. The project is built on the BitVM computing paradigm and aims to support DeFi services through Bitcoin native assets (non-encapsulated form). Its cross-chain bridge technology allows BTC to be freely transferred between Rollup and the mainnet. BOB co-founder Alexei Zamyatin emphasized that this solution is fundamentally different from encapsulated asset models such as Stacks, similar to the native properties of ETH in Ethereum Rollup. The testnet has received support from institutional nodes such as Lombard, Amber Group, and RockawayX, and these operators will participate in BitVM bridge verification.
US June non-farm payrolls report to be released tomorrow
According to Jinshi, due to the US Independence Day holiday, the US June non-farm payrolls report was released ahead of schedule at 20:30 on July 3 (Thursday). On that day, US stocks and CME stock index futures trading closed ahead of schedule. On July 4, the US stock market was closed for one day. CME's precious metals, US oil, foreign exchange, and stock index futures contracts trading ended ahead of schedule at 01:00 on the 5th Beijing time, and ICE's Brent crude oil futures contracts trading ended ahead of schedule at 01:30 on the 5th Beijing time. Investors are kindly requested to pay attention.
Crypto detective ZachXBT said on the X platform that his investigation found that since January 1, 2025, more than $16.58 million in payments have flowed to North Korean IT personnel hired as developers by various projects and companies, with an average of $2.76 million per month. Calculated at a monthly salary of $3,000-8,000 per person, it is equivalent to at least 345 to 920 positions being infiltrated. In the six clusters he monitored, one cluster successfully tracked down eight North Korean information technology workers working in more than 12 projects, and the payment address funds flowed to two aggregated addresses. Through open source intelligence, it was found that Sandy Nguyen (@bullishgopher) of the cluster was photographed standing next to the North Korean flag while active in Russia. Despite the public disclosure of a large number of intrusion indicators and research materials, some people still believe that this is a conspiracy theory. After communicating with the relevant team, he also found other suspicious situations in the cluster, such as refusing to meet offline but claiming to be in the same city, recommending each other for employment, abnormal IP addresses, changing usernames, deleting accounts, paying at the same address, and failing KYC checks.
According to Zhitong Finance, Hong Kong-listed company Kingkey Financial International (01468) issued an announcement that on June 30, 2025 (after the trading hours), the company entered into a subscription agreement with the issuer Amber International Holding Limited, pursuant to which the issuer agreed to issue and the company agreed to subscribe for subscription shares at a cost of approximately US$12 million. The subscription price for the subscription shares is US$2.09 per subscription share. It is reported that the subscription shares are 5.7416 million Class A common shares with a par value of US$0.001 per share issued by the issuer. The announcement stated that the subscription is a strategic financial investment that fits the group's recent plans, including the previous establishment of an investment committee to oversee digital asset opportunities. It is expected that the investment will diversify the company's investment portfolio and enter the field of institutional encryption services, which is consistent with its previous voluntary announcement on exploring digital assets.
Traders increase bets on at least two Fed rate cuts by end-2025
According to Jinshi, traders are increasing their bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at least twice before the end of 2025.
U.S. ADP employment fell by 33,000 in June, the largest drop since March 2023
According to Jinshi, the number of ADP jobs in the United States fell by 33,000 in June, the largest drop since March 2023.
According to Businesswire, digital payment and financial technology company Mogo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOGO) announced that its board of directors has authorized up to $50 million in allocations to Bitcoin as part of the company's long-term capital preservation and product innovation strategy. With the WonderFi and Robinhood transaction expected to be completed in the second half of 2025, Mogo expects to hold approximately $50 million in cash and investments. The company's board of directors has approved a maximum allocation of $50 million in Bitcoin, which will come from excess cash on the balance sheet and will be supplemented over time through additional monetization of the portfolio. The company's initial goal is to gradually expand its Bitcoin investment to $50 million through phased investments while ensuring sufficient working capital for operating operations.
Coinbase has acquired token management platform Liquifi
According to Fortune magazine, crypto exchange Coinbase announced the acquisition of token management platform Liquifi, which is its fourth acquisition completed in 2025. Aklil Ibssa, head of corporate development at Coinbase, declined to disclose the specific terms of the deal. Liquifi has received $5 million in seed round financing led by Dragonfly. Its clients include well-known projects such as the Uniswap Foundation and OP Labs, and it mainly provides services such as token attribution and tax management. Aklil Ibssa, head of corporate development at Coinbase, said that this acquisition will improve its full-cycle service capabilities from token creation to listing.
Hungarian Central Bank Rules Out Inclusion of Any Crypto Assets
According to Zhitong Finance, Hungarian central bank official Kuraly said that the central bank is evaluating its international reserve strategy and excludes the possibility of including any crypto assets.
Italian Banking Group Banca Sell to Test Custody Services for Stablecoins and Other Digital Assets
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that Italian banking group Banca Sella Holding SpA is conducting an internal pilot project to test custody services for digital assets such as stablecoins. The person familiar with the matter said that Sella has been working with technology provider Fireblocks to carry out the pilot. They also said that the banking group currently only allows a limited number of professional employees to hold digital assets within the company, and may extend this service to customers in the future.
Analysis: 56 VC-backed tokens have been listed this year, 3 of which have FDV exceeding $1 billion
Crypto analyst @ahboyash posted on the X platform that as of mid-2025, 56 venture-backed tokens have been listed. Of these, 45 tokens have a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $50 million to $1 billion when they are listed (accounting for 80% of the total number of projects), 8 tokens have an FDV of less than $50 million, and 3 tokens have an FDV of more than $1 billion (Kaito, Story Protocol, and Walrus). It is worth noting that venture capital firms usually invest in the seed round, when the project valuation is generally $20 million to $100 million FDV; after the token generation event (TGE), the venture capital tokens will be locked for about 3 years, and after the restricted sale period + vesting period, the valuation may further plummet; the token trading price of some projects is already lower than the valuation of the previous round of financing (that is, investors have already suffered losses).
Binance Alpha has launched ECHO Standard Chartered Bank expects Bitcoin to hit a new high of $135,000 in the third quarter
According to Cointelegraph, Standard Chartered Bank's latest report predicts that Bitcoin will break through $135,000 and hit a record high by the end of the third quarter, and is expected to reach $200,000 by the end of the year. Geoff Kendrick, head of digital asset research at the bank, pointed out that strong ETF inflows and corporate holdings have changed the Bitcoin halving cycle, and the price decline trend 18 months after the traditional halving (September-October 2025) may become invalid. The report emphasizes that the new ETF and corporate allocation demand in the current cycle (which did not appear in the first two rounds of halving) will support the continued upward trend of prices, but fluctuations from the end of the third quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter are still not ruled out. Standard Chartered Bank maintains its long-term bullish outlook for Bitcoin, and expects the unit price to reach $500,000 in 2028.
QCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto investment institution, said in a statement that Bitcoin showed its resilience in the end-of-quarter capital flows, and listed companies continued to increase their spot holdings. Companies have purchased more BTC than ETFs for three consecutive quarters. The SEC has taken frequent actions, approving pledged Ethereum and Solana ETFs, and Grayscale's large funds have transformed into ETFs. It also plans to formulate common standards to simplify and accelerate the approval process for token ETFs. Enterprises are accelerating their allocation of crypto assets. Bitmine raised $20 million in a private placement to increase its holdings of Ethereum, and DeFi Development raised $100 million to acquire Solana and repurchase shares. In the infrastructure field, Circle applied for a US license, Robinhood launched new business in Europe, and Trump's crypto mining project raised $220 million. Market structure shows that the liquidity of the cryptocurrency derivatives market continues to improve. CME's Solana futures open interest reached a record high of 1.75 million, and the first-month trading volume of XRP futures exceeded $500 million. BTC's market share remained at a multi-year high of 65%-66%. Retail investors, early participants, and short-term holders seem to have entered a summer break, while institutions have quietly increased their holdings. The market has now turned its attention to the third and fourth quarters, and the position data suggests that the volatility regime may be changing. The macro environment continues to be favorable for risky assets. Trump confirmed that the Senate passed the "Big America" Act, criticized Powell and hinted at a replacement; the market pricing rate cuts exceeded the Fed's expectations, and the Treasury Secretary also released a signal of easing. The US stock market continued to rise due to the recovery of IPOs and the easing of risk expectations. The trend of rising risk appetite has been transmitted to the digital asset field, but the sentiment of the altcoin market is still lagging.
Ondo Finance to launch Ondo Global Markets, an on-chain US stock trading platform, this summer
According to the official announcement, Ondo Finance announced that it will launch the on-chain U.S. stock trading platform Ondo Global Markets this summer. With the launch of the platform, more than 100 U.S. stocks will be introduced on the chain, and it is planned to expand to thousands by the end of the year.
