π Daily Recap Β· Sep 19
ποΈ Circle built a blockchain it thinks beats USDC
πΈ Robinhood engineers allegedly traded on insider listing tips
π SEC says tokenized stocks must carry real shareholder rights
π¬ Hackers ran 108 ads selling an HBO app that never existed
Forward this to whoever spent the day in meetings β they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
ποΈ Circle built a blockchain it thinks beats USDC
πΈ Robinhood engineers allegedly traded on insider listing tips
π SEC says tokenized stocks must carry real shareholder rights
π¬ Hackers ran 108 ads selling an HBO app that never existed
Forward this to whoever spent the day in meetings β they missed a lot
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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πΈ Iran's Strait of Hormuz toll booth ran on bitcoin
Iran charged tankers $1β2 million per vessel for "safe passage" through the Strait of Hormuz β a chokepoint for a fifth of the world's oil. Treasury just traced where that money landed.
OFAC sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran exchange founded in 2024, and its developer. The charge: hundreds of millions in bitcoin flowed through it to the Revolutionary Guards. Hormuz Safe Marine collected the fees; BitBank was the till.
Secondary sanctions put any foreign firm that touched its transactions at risk of losing dollar access. One gap, per Blockworks: OFAC named zero wallet addresses β without them, compliance screening runs blind.
A crypto toll booth on the world's busiest oil lane. Perfectly normal 2025.
CoinDesk
Iran charged tankers $1β2 million per vessel for "safe passage" through the Strait of Hormuz β a chokepoint for a fifth of the world's oil. Treasury just traced where that money landed.
OFAC sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran exchange founded in 2024, and its developer. The charge: hundreds of millions in bitcoin flowed through it to the Revolutionary Guards. Hormuz Safe Marine collected the fees; BitBank was the till.
Secondary sanctions put any foreign firm that touched its transactions at risk of losing dollar access. One gap, per Blockworks: OFAC named zero wallet addresses β without them, compliance screening runs blind.
A crypto toll booth on the world's busiest oil lane. Perfectly normal 2025.
CoinDesk
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πΈ Crypto as evidence
A Swedish gang spent ten months moving 70 million krona ($7.1M) through crypto. Their alleged leader fled Sweden, landed on an Interpol Red Notice, and resurfaced in the UAE β where he was arrested simultaneously as six associates were picked up back home.
The bigger surprise came from the transaction trail itself: following it led investigators beyond the laundering and into organised crime and contract killings.
In Sweden, that's not an abstraction β police reported 23 bystanders killed in gangland shootings over three years, with gangs recruiting teenage hitmen through social media.
Blockchain's anonymity has its fans. Two countries' worth of investigators, per Emirates News Agency, are not among them.
Decrypt
A Swedish gang spent ten months moving 70 million krona ($7.1M) through crypto. Their alleged leader fled Sweden, landed on an Interpol Red Notice, and resurfaced in the UAE β where he was arrested simultaneously as six associates were picked up back home.
The bigger surprise came from the transaction trail itself: following it led investigators beyond the laundering and into organised crime and contract killings.
In Sweden, that's not an abstraction β police reported 23 bystanders killed in gangland shootings over three years, with gangs recruiting teenage hitmen through social media.
Blockchain's anonymity has its fans. Two countries' worth of investigators, per Emirates News Agency, are not among them.
Decrypt
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π‘ Mr. Wonderful names his price β with a catch
Kevin O'Leary, the *Shark Tank* investor, told The Rollup at Avalanche Summit that Bitcoin hits $1 million β but only if the industry solves "Q-Day" first: the theoretical moment a quantum computer cracks the encryption securing every wallet on the network. Until then, big funds sit at ~3%
He also buried his old thesis himself β buy BTC and ETH, capture 97% of the market:
On AI: don't guess the winning model, buy what every model needs. Power grids, land in Norway and Finland, and β for the first time in his career β physical uranium to fuel small modular reactors headed for data centers.
Decrypt
Kevin O'Leary, the *Shark Tank* investor, told The Rollup at Avalanche Summit that Bitcoin hits $1 million β but only if the industry solves "Q-Day" first: the theoretical moment a quantum computer cracks the encryption securing every wallet on the network. Until then, big funds sit at ~3%
BTC exposure and won't budge.He also buried his old thesis himself β buy BTC and ETH, capture 97% of the market:
"Ethereum isn't fast enough or secure enough. That's my own opinion."
On AI: don't guess the winning model, buy what every model needs. Power grids, land in Norway and Finland, and β for the first time in his career β physical uranium to fuel small modular reactors headed for data centers.
Decrypt
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πΈ Hormuz Bitcoin tolls β Treasury sanctioned the cashier
Quick context: since June, ships have been paying Iran in Bitcoin for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a route carrying a fifth of the world's oil. Treasury sanctioned the tolling scheme in July β today it went after the exchange that moved the money.
OFAC designated BitBank, through which "hundreds of millions in Bitcoin" flowed to the IRGC between June and July, per Treasury. Its owner, Babak Zanjani, was sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzlement, pardoned in 2024, and immediately resurfaced in regime-linked ventures. Four more entities from his network were designated alongside him.
The toll scheme lasted under two months. Funny how fast geopolitics moves when there's a blockchain receipt.
Decrypt
Quick context: since June, ships have been paying Iran in Bitcoin for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a route carrying a fifth of the world's oil. Treasury sanctioned the tolling scheme in July β today it went after the exchange that moved the money.
OFAC designated BitBank, through which "hundreds of millions in Bitcoin" flowed to the IRGC between June and July, per Treasury. Its owner, Babak Zanjani, was sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzlement, pardoned in 2024, and immediately resurfaced in regime-linked ventures. Four more entities from his network were designated alongside him.
The toll scheme lasted under two months. Funny how fast geopolitics moves when there's a blockchain receipt.
Decrypt
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ποΈ Hand over the badge
MS NOW β formerly MSNBC β was never Trump's favorite channel. On Friday he made it official: MS NOW, CNN and Politico banned from White House grounds for "constant FAKE NEWS." By Saturday, the locks had changed.
Correspondent Akayla Gardner described it live: scanned her badge, got a red beeping light, was asked to hand it over. Disabled. Why? "It's above me." The network's photographer lost theirs too. A producer, somehow, made it through.
MS NOW has pledged to fight for its First Amendment rights. Trump floated the NYT and Washington Post as next, per Variety.
Press credentials usually get pulled from individual reporters. Whole newsrooms is a different thing entirely.
MS NOW β formerly MSNBC β was never Trump's favorite channel. On Friday he made it official: MS NOW, CNN and Politico banned from White House grounds for "constant FAKE NEWS." By Saturday, the locks had changed.
Correspondent Akayla Gardner described it live: scanned her badge, got a red beeping light, was asked to hand it over. Disabled. Why? "It's above me." The network's photographer lost theirs too. A producer, somehow, made it through.
MS NOW has pledged to fight for its First Amendment rights. Trump floated the NYT and Washington Post as next, per Variety.
Press credentials usually get pulled from individual reporters. Whole newsrooms is a different thing entirely.
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π₯ Trump Bans CNN, MSNBC and Politico From the White House
Not his first move of this kind. Last year Trump barred AP from the Oval Office for refusing to call it the "Gulf of America" β an appeals court upheld the ban. Precedent established.
On Friday, CNN, MSNBC (Trump insists on writing "MSNOW," a dig at its dwindling ratings) and Politico were added to the list, for "constant fake news." Closing line: "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."
Politico got a special mention: federal agencies spent over
Not his first move of this kind. Last year Trump barred AP from the Oval Office for refusing to call it the "Gulf of America" β an appeals court upheld the ban. Precedent established.
On Friday, CNN, MSNBC (Trump insists on writing "MSNOW," a dig at its dwindling ratings) and Politico were added to the list, for "constant fake news." Closing line: "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."
Politico got a special mention: federal agencies spent over
$8 million on its subscriptions under Biden. "Seems like corruption to me." None of the three have commented, per Variety.β€2π2π1
πΈ Grayscale is splitting its Zcash ETF shares three ways
Zcash is a privacy coin whose transactions can be fully shielded β sender, recipient, amount, all invisible. In August, Grayscale turned its Zcash Trust into
A coin engineered to make money invisible, now repackaged for retirement accounts β with a line out the door.
Decrypt
Zcash is a privacy coin whose transactions can be fully shielded β sender, recipient, amount, all invisible. In August, Grayscale turned its Zcash Trust into
ZCSH, the world's first spot Zcash ETF, and investors piled in: $233 million in a month, including a single $112 million day on September 8.ZEC is up 2,800% over the past year, hitting $1,521 on Friday. That's the problem β ETF shares can't be bought fractionally the way tokens can, so a runaway price locks out smaller investors. Fix: a 3-for-1 forward split, record date September 28, new shares distributed the 29th, split-adjusted trading starts the 30th. Same ticker, same CUSIP.A coin engineered to make money invisible, now repackaged for retirement accounts β with a line out the door.
Decrypt
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π Daily Recap Β· Sep 21
π‘ O'Leary says $1M Bitcoin β after quantum hurdle
πΈ Treasury hunts the exchange behind Iran's Bitcoin tolls
ποΈ Reporter's badge stopped working live on air
π₯ CNN, MSNBC, Politico officially locked out of White House
πΈ Grayscale splits its Zcash ETF into three
Someone on your timeline definitely missed today β pass this along
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
π‘ O'Leary says $1M Bitcoin β after quantum hurdle
πΈ Treasury hunts the exchange behind Iran's Bitcoin tolls
ποΈ Reporter's badge stopped working live on air
π₯ CNN, MSNBC, Politico officially locked out of White House
πΈ Grayscale splits its Zcash ETF into three
Someone on your timeline definitely missed today β pass this along
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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πΈ When a Bitcoin ETF isn't levered enough
Strive is a publicly traded company that holds Bitcoin as its primary treasury asset β currently fifth among corporate holders with 25,000 BTC on the books. REX Shares and Tuttle Capital thought plain exposure wasn't exciting enough.
On Friday they launched
Per Yahoo Finance, REX and Tuttle already run similar 2x funds on Strategy, BitMine and Circle. Leveraged Bitcoin-treasury ETFs are quietly becoming their own genre.
Cointelegraph
Strive is a publicly traded company that holds Bitcoin as its primary treasury asset β currently fifth among corporate holders with 25,000 BTC on the books. REX Shares and Tuttle Capital thought plain exposure wasn't exciting enough.
On Friday they launched
ASSX on Cboe: a 2x daily ETF targeting 200% of Strive's share-price move. The leverage resets every session, so multi-day math gets complicated fast. No Bitcoin held, no Bitcoin price tracked β just a leveraged bet on Strive's equity.Per Yahoo Finance, REX and Tuttle already run similar 2x funds on Strategy, BitMine and Circle. Leveraged Bitcoin-treasury ETFs are quietly becoming their own genre.
Cointelegraph
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π¬ The tie stays
Jason Calacanis β venture investor and long-time bitcoin sceptic β dropped another obituary as
Michael Saylor's reply was three sentences and a door closing:
Then: *"The orange tie stays."*
Seventeen years in, two serious people look at the same asset and see completely different animals. According to CoinDesk, both are still watching.
Jason Calacanis β venture investor and long-time bitcoin sceptic β dropped another obituary as
BTC slid back to $80K. His verdict: bitcoin feels like a CD in the age of Spotify, a dead cat that keeps bouncing. No killer use case, no mass adoption, and its advocates traded pirate flags for orange ties and cringe memes.Michael Saylor's reply was three sentences and a door closing:
"You've watched Bitcoin grow since 2011. It's now a $1.6 trillion success. Preserving wealth across generations is a bigger ambition than entertaining a dinner party."
Then: *"The orange tie stays."*
Seventeen years in, two serious people look at the same asset and see completely different animals. According to CoinDesk, both are still watching.
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π₯ HYPE just hit an all-time high β and there's a reason
The setup: post
For context: two days prior, Kraken announced onchain perpetual futures for US clients, also routed through Hyperliquid. The platform is quietly becoming infrastructure.
CoinDesk has the details.
Cointelegraph
HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid's layer-1 blockchain and decentralized derivatives exchange, touched $90.92 on Friday β seconds after the protocol launched manual borrowing.The setup: post
HYPE or Bitcoin as collateral, borrow USDC or USDT directly from real suppliers via HyperCore β no platform-level accounting magic. Day-one borrowing hit $269 million.For context: two days prior, Kraken announced onchain perpetual futures for US clients, also routed through Hyperliquid. The platform is quietly becoming infrastructure.
CoinDesk has the details.
Cointelegraph
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πΈ Congress stalled. Regulators didn't wait.
The Clarity Act β meant to give U.S. crypto markets their first federal framework, splitting oversight between the CFTC and SEC β failed its Senate cloture vote this week, 60 votes needed, not reached. Lead negotiator Sen. Lummis called its chances this year essentially dead.
The CFTC responded by sending a crypto prerule package to the White House's OIRA for review, without waiting for Capitol Hill. Text isn't public yet, but the intent is clear: build a derivatives framework on its own authority. The SEC moved in parallel, rolling out an exemption letting venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks on blockchain without registering as national exchanges.
Treasury Secretary Bessent once called agency rulemaking the fallback option. Per Decrypt, it's now just the option.
The Clarity Act β meant to give U.S. crypto markets their first federal framework, splitting oversight between the CFTC and SEC β failed its Senate cloture vote this week, 60 votes needed, not reached. Lead negotiator Sen. Lummis called its chances this year essentially dead.
The CFTC responded by sending a crypto prerule package to the White House's OIRA for review, without waiting for Capitol Hill. Text isn't public yet, but the intent is clear: build a derivatives framework on its own authority. The SEC moved in parallel, rolling out an exemption letting venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks on blockchain without registering as national exchanges.
Treasury Secretary Bessent once called agency rulemaking the fallback option. Per Decrypt, it's now just the option.
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πΈ Lagarde vs. Binance: a license too consequential to grant
MiCA gives bloc-wide operating rights to any exchange approved by a single EU national regulator. Binance picked Greece, met every requirement by its own account β and got rejected at the last minute anyway.
The Wall Street Journal reports the real obstacle was Christine Lagarde herself. Her concern: Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, would accelerate dollar-based stablecoins across the eurozone, undermining the ECB's digital euro project. The ECB holds no formal role in crypto licensing β yet here we are.
Binance withdrew its Greek application in June and says it will try elsewhere in the bloc. Full paperwork, zero missing items, still a no. Regulation is always a little bit politics.
CoinDesk
MiCA gives bloc-wide operating rights to any exchange approved by a single EU national regulator. Binance picked Greece, met every requirement by its own account β and got rejected at the last minute anyway.
The Wall Street Journal reports the real obstacle was Christine Lagarde herself. Her concern: Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, would accelerate dollar-based stablecoins across the eurozone, undermining the ECB's digital euro project. The ECB holds no formal role in crypto licensing β yet here we are.
Binance withdrew its Greek application in June and says it will try elsewhere in the bloc. Full paperwork, zero missing items, still a no. Regulation is always a little bit politics.
CoinDesk
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π Daily Recap Β· Sep 22
π Strive holds 25K BTC and someone wanted more leverage
π Calacanis calls Bitcoin a dead cat again at $80K
π HYPE token hits all-time high as borrowing goes live
βοΈ US crypto clarity bill dies in Senate, regulators move anyway
πͺπΊ Binance met every EU requirement and still got rejected
Someone on your feed definitely missed the whole crypto circus today β pass this along
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
π Strive holds 25K BTC and someone wanted more leverage
π Calacanis calls Bitcoin a dead cat again at $80K
π HYPE token hits all-time high as borrowing goes live
βοΈ US crypto clarity bill dies in Senate, regulators move anyway
πͺπΊ Binance met every EU requirement and still got rejected
Someone on your feed definitely missed the whole crypto circus today β pass this along
CHEATKOTT - Your Daily News
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π¦ Banks are taking over Europe's crypto register
MiCA is the EU's first comprehensive crypto rulebook, in full force this year. While crypto firms queued for authorization, banks found a shortcut.
Between June 26 and September 16, the bank count on ESMA's register nearly doubled β from ~40 to ~80 β pushing their share from 17% to almost 23%. One in four providers is now a bank.
Germany led the charge: Deutsche Bank plus dozens of regional Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank institutions. Under Article 60 of MiCA, banks skip full CASP authorization β a 40-working-day notice to the home regulator is enough. Crypto startups who spent months on licensing paperwork might have feelings about that.
Via Cointelegraph.
MiCA is the EU's first comprehensive crypto rulebook, in full force this year. While crypto firms queued for authorization, banks found a shortcut.
Between June 26 and September 16, the bank count on ESMA's register nearly doubled β from ~40 to ~80 β pushing their share from 17% to almost 23%. One in four providers is now a bank.
Germany led the charge: Deutsche Bank plus dozens of regional Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank institutions. Under Article 60 of MiCA, banks skip full CASP authorization β a 40-working-day notice to the home regulator is enough. Crypto startups who spent months on licensing paperwork might have feelings about that.
Via Cointelegraph.
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πΈ Coinbase is bringing crypto-style futures to US stocks
Perpetual futures β no expiry date, no need to own the underlying asset β have been crypto-native for years. Coinbase already offers them on Apple and Nvidia to non-US traders. Now it's filed with the CFTC to bring the same product stateside.
Per The Wall Street Journal, the initial list would cover ~50β60 names: Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia. Trading runs 24/5; the contracts never expire.
Regulatory approval is pending. Coinbase is clearly betting the wall between crypto and traditional equity markets keeps getting thinner β and wants a desk on both sides.
Cointelegraph
Perpetual futures β no expiry date, no need to own the underlying asset β have been crypto-native for years. Coinbase already offers them on Apple and Nvidia to non-US traders. Now it's filed with the CFTC to bring the same product stateside.
Per The Wall Street Journal, the initial list would cover ~50β60 names: Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia. Trading runs 24/5; the contracts never expire.
Regulatory approval is pending. Coinbase is clearly betting the wall between crypto and traditional equity markets keeps getting thinner β and wants a desk on both sides.
Cointelegraph
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