The Daily: Riot round trips 25% surge on reported $9.1B Anthropic deal, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Tuesday! Bitcoin slipped back below $64,000 as traders brace for Wednesday's U.S. inflation report, with analysts saying it could determine whether the cryptocurrency finally breaks out of its recent range.

In today's newsletter, Riot stock round trips a 25% jump after a reported $9.1 billion deal with Anthropic, Zama taps Revolut's 70 million users, FlightAware sues Kalshi, and more.

Meanwhile, BlackRock said bitcoin sentiment is turning as a decoupling from stocks takes hold.

👀 P.S. Don't forget to check out today's reader poll on CPI later in the newsletter, and congratulations to the 47% of you in last Tuesday's poll who correctly guessed bitcoin would close the week under $65,000.

⛰️ Reminder: We'll be on the ground at SALT's Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole Aug. 17-20, with exclusive interviews and coverage of the biggest stories shaping crypto and global finance.

Riot stock round trips 25% surge after reported $9.1 billion Anthropic deal

Bitcoin miner-turned-AI infrastructure provider Riot Platforms has signed a 20-year, $9.1 billion data center lease with a frontier lab reported to be Anthropic.

• The lease covers 191 MW of IT capacity at Riot's Rockdale facility in Texas through 2048, with Bernstein analysts estimating it could generate $457 million in annual recurring revenue.
• Following the news, Riot shares surged more than 25% in pre-market trading on Tuesday before giving up nearly all those gains later in the day, while Bernstein raised its 12-month price target to $35, implying potential 80% upside from Monday's $19.40 close.
• It's the second large AI lease Riot has signed this year, following its deal with AMD in January, bringing contracted capacity to 241 MW, according to CEO Jason Les.
• Bernstein sees AI colocation now representing 84% of Riot's target enterprise value, compared to 11% for bitcoin mining and 5% for its bitcoin holdings.
• However, such growth requires substantial funding, with Bernstein estimating Riot will need to raise another $3.7 billion in secured financing for its modeled buildouts.
• The analysts cited financing, alongside construction execution and Riot's concentration in Texas, as risks to its AI expansion.

Zama brings its blockchain-privacy token to Revolut's 70 million users

Blockchain-privacy project Zama listed its native token on Revolut across the EEA, opening trading to the fintech's 70 million-plus customers, including the 15 million who already trade crypto on the platform.

• Existing Revolut users can buy and hold ZAMA with no new account or extra identity checks, and can withdraw the token to a self-custody wallet, the project said.
• Zama uses fully homomorphic encryption to keep balances and transactions private on public chains like Ethereum, framing the approach as blockchain's "HTTPS moment" for privacy.
• The listing follows a series of recent developments for Zama, which launched a confidential DeFi vault with Morpho in June, acquired TokenOps in May, and debuted ZAMA in February.

FlightAware sues Kalshi over alleged unauthorized data use for flight cancellation markets

Flight-tracking site FlightAware sued Kalshi in New York, accusing the prediction market platform of improperly using its data and name to "run gambling markets on flight cancellations."

• In a court filing, FlightAware alleged Kalshi launched flight-cancellation markets last month citing outcomes "verified from FlightAware," without informing the company it would rely on its data.
• The suit claims trademark infringement and unfair competition, and seeks a restraining order barring Kalshi from markets involving the site, which FlightAware said could threaten air-travel safety.
• The case adds to Kalshi's mounting legal pressure, after New York sued the platform for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation in the state and courts in Washington and Michigan moved to block its sports-event contracts.

'One of the single biggest barriers to growth': UK lawmakers press banks over crypto access ahead of new FCA regime

UK lawmakers are pressing major banks to explain whether the country's upcoming FCA crypto regime will change how they treat authorized digital asset firms, as part of a broader inquiry into banking access.

• Gurinder Singh Josan CBE MP and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, co-chairs of the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group, wrote to the banks' CEOs requesting details of their policies toward crypto businesses, whether they offer accounts to the sector, and any limits they place on crypto-related transactions.
• The lawmakers warned that restricting banking access "could be one of the single biggest barriers to growth" for UK crypto firms and could undermine the success of the new regime.
• The UK financial regulator finalized its crypto framework in June, with authorization applications opening Sept. 30 and the regime set to take effect Oct. 25, 2027.

Coinbase rolls out derivatives for UK professional investors

Coinbase rolled out a suite of derivatives products for UK professional investors, including perpetuals, dated futures, and crypto options as it builds out its "Everything Exchange" strategy.

• The lineup spans more than 170 contracts across crypto, commodities, equities, and forex, with 24/7 perpetuals trading at up to 50x leverage and dated futures at up to 20x.
• The launch follows Coinbase's newly secured UK MiFID license and lands a week after it began offering nearly 4,000 U.S. stocks to UK users, part of a wider push beyond spot crypto trading.

Reader poll

Will U.S. July headline CPI come in hotter than expected tomorrow?

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One click records your pick. We'll share the answer in a later edition.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. CPI inflation data are due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Est. MoM 0.1%; Core 0.2%. Est. YoY 3.4%; Core 2.5%.
• Aptos is among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• Acelerando Bitcoin 2026 and Blockchain Rio get underway.

Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.