The Daily: Metaplanet's stock tanks over ballooning executive share pool, and more

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

Happy Tuesday! Bitcoin's volatility remains subdued, but analysts said supply in profit is nearing a level that has historically marked bear-to-bull market transitions.

In today's newsletter, Metaplanet shares slide amid investor concerns, Ethereum aims to be quantum-safe by 2029, Bitmine's holdings near 5% of Ethereum's supply, and more.

Meanwhile, Polish prosecutors charge a fifth suspect in the Zondacrypto probe involving around $100 million in estimated losses.

P.S. Don't forget to check out today's reader poll on the Clarity Act later in the newsletter.

Metaplanet slides 17% this week as CEO's public note fails to ease investor concerns

Metaplanet shares fell nearly 10% in Japan on Tuesday, extending a two-session slide of about 17% after a public note from CEO Simon Gerovich failed to calm investors.

• The issue relates to the firm's Series 10 option pool, which grew from about 46 million shares to 319 million because it was adjusted to remain equal to 20% of fully diluted shares rather than a fixed number.
• The structure allowed the executive award pool to grow while existing shareholders were diluted as Metaplanet continued to issue stock to buy bitcoin.
• Gerovich admitted Metaplanet "had not done a good enough job" communicating the company's plans and structure with shareholders, noting it froze the pool in August and added a five-year lock-up.
• Critics also scrutinized his ties to MMXX Ventures, a Metaplanet shareholder, with Gerovich saying he's a "significant but non-majority" holder of its parent company and has no role in its trading decisions.
• Investors weren't satisfied, with some demanding the company cancel the roughly 273 million additional shares in the pool.

Ethereum aims for quantum-safe L1 by 2029 as Hegotá upgrade takes form

The Ethereum Foundation set a December 2029 target to make Ethereum quantum-resistant across its execution, consensus, and data layers.

• Out of 62 improvement proposals for its upcoming Hegotá upgrade, the foundation is prioritizing FOCIL for stronger censorship resistance and Frame Transactions for native account abstraction and post-quantum readiness.
• While Hegotá is not a post-quantum fork, it will help determine whether later quantum upgrades stay on schedule.
• The EF said Ethereum should plan for "Q-day" as early as 2030, leaving a tight 7.2-month cadence between forks.

Bitmine nears 5% Ethereum supply target after buying 28,086 ETH

Tom Lee's Bitmine bought another 28,086 ETH last week, raising its holdings to 5.93 million ETH (about $14.8 billion) or roughly 4.9% of ether's supply, closing in on its 5% target.

• Of that total, Bitmine now stakes 5.07 million ETH with a projected annual staking revenue of $330 million.
• Strategy, by contrast, bought no bitcoin last week, holding steady at 845,050 BTC, and instead repurchased $176.3 million of its STRC preferred stock while doubling its digital credit buyback program to $2 billion.
• Meanwhile, Strive added 1,375 BTC for about $109 million last week to reach 24,531 BTC, funded largely by its SATA preferred stock.
• Strive remains on pace to overtake Twenty One as the second-largest public bitcoin treasury company this year, though it would need to acquire roughly 1,200 BTC per week to get there.

Robinhood expands prediction markets with Crypto.com, OG partnerships ahead of NFL season

Robinhood struck deals with Crypto.com and OG.com to expand its prediction markets, routing some event contracts to OG.com starting with football ahead of the NFL season kicking off Wednesday.

• Robinhood will also take equity stakes in both firms, priced in line with a $20 billion valuation following Citadel Securities' recent investment in Crypto.com.
• Robinhood's contracts will still route to Kalshi, ForecastEX, and Rothera too, with customers gaining access to a wider variety of options, including game outcomes, player props, and custom combos, plus a new election hub with interactive heat maps.
• The news builds on a strong quarter for Robinhood, trading 13.6 billion event contracts in Q2, translating to about $156 million in revenue, the first time prediction markets out-earned its crypto business.

Visa stablecoin settlement tops $20 billion annualized run rate, up more than 15x year over year

Visa said its stablecoin settlement volume topped a $20 billion annualized run rate, up more than 15x year over year, as stablecoin-linked card programs expand across its network.

• More than 160 such programs were live globally in Visa's fiscal second quarter, with payment volume on them up nearly 200% from a year earlier.
• The rapid growth prompted Visa to partner with Credit Coop on a stablecoin-denominated revolving credit facility that has already financed about $2 billion for card firm Rain.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. mortgage data are out at 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
• Movement is among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• Lagos Blockchain Week and Boston Blockchain Week continue. Crypto Expo Dubai 2026 gets underway.

Reader poll

Prediction markets give the Clarity Act just 16% odds of clearing its Sept. 15 procedural vote. Do you think it passes?

YES, IT CLEARS

NO, IT FAILS

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

*64% of respondents in last Tuesday's poll expected Strategy to continue buying bitcoin last week.

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