The Block
Quick Take Following the lead of popular prediction platform Polymarket, Crypto.com has launched a “sports event trading product,” which will allow users in the U.S. to wager on sporting events like the Super Bowl. Polymarket, made famous during the U.S. presidential election, has already generated more than $1 billion of wagers attempting to predict which NFL team will win the next Super Bowl.
Quick Take Binance and Kraken have led a $10 million Series A funding round for Usual, the fast-growing stablecoin startup. Launched in early 2024, the protocol’s community-focused, yield-bearing USD0 token has grown to become the seventh-largest stablecoin by market cap.
Quick Take Uniswap Labs and web3 security firm Blockaid have partnered on a new onchain detection and response system to protect DEX users from malicious tokens.
Quick Take Bitcoin and crypto industry advocate Pete Hegseth has been nominated for Secretary of Defense by President-elect Donald Trump. Hegseth recently said Trump is “making bitcoin great again” amid the more crypto-friendly regulatory environment anticipated under his administration.
Quick Take 0G Labs announced $290 million in new funding, which includes a $40 million seed round and a $250 million token purchase commitment. The project will be able to draw from the token commitment once the 0G token is live and liquid on crypto exchanges sometime next year, 0G Labs co-founder and CEO Michael Heinrich told The Block.
Quick Take Pepe surged in price following Robinhood’s announcement that it has listed the memecoin for spot trading, and an update from Coinbase revealing it will also list the token later today. The memecoin has surged by over 30% in the past hour, and over 40% in the past 24 hours.
Quick Take Bitwise announced it has acquired Attestant, an Ethereum staking provider with $4 billion in staked assets.
Quick Take BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, tokenized by Securitize, is expanding from Ethereum to the Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism and Polygon blockchains. BUIDL currently leads the tokenized government securities niche with $517 million in assets under management — equivalent to a market share of roughly 22%.
Quick Take Trump’s promise to be a pro-crypto president was buoyed by hopes for a dovish Fed. Now that the latter is on shaky ground, the market is adjusting. This column is adapted from The Scoop newsletter.
Quick Take Until bitcoin hits the $500,000 level, “it’s still early,” according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan — marking the point at which the cryptocurrency “matures.” Amid a series of new all-time highs for bitcoin following Donald Trump’s election victory, “$100,000 feels like it could be right around the corner,” he said.
