The Daily: Crypto not in Democrats' party platform, Bitwise acquires ETC Group, Shaq's NFT legal battle and more
Quick Take
- Crypto is missing from the Democrats’ party platform as national convention kicks off
- Bitwise acquires physical bitcoin ETP issuer ETC Group amidst European expansion
- Shaquille O’Neal’s legal battle in Astrals NFT case sees partial dismissal
- The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Happy Monday! In today's Daily, cryptocurrency isn't mentioned in the Democrats' party platform before the start of the national convention, Bitwise acquires crypto ETP issuer ETC Group, Shaquille O'Neal's NFT legal case sees a partial dismissal and more.
Let's get started.
Crypto missing from Democrats party platform amid national convention
The Democrats' newly released party platform does not mention cryptocurrency, which may disappoint left-leaning voters seeking a renewed vision for the government's handling of crypto.
- This omission contrasts sharply with the Republican platform, which promises to end the "unlawful and unAmerican Crypto crackdown" and defend the right to mine Bitcoin.
- Republican nominee Donald Trump has actively positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate, speaking at the Bitcoin Conference and revealing substantial Ethereum holdings.
- The Democrats' platform, approved in July before Joe Biden dropped out of the race, will be voted on by convention delegates as a formality.
- Following Biden's withdrawal, efforts have been made to strengthen ties between Kamala Harris and the crypto industry, including a town hall by Crypto4Harris.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed his intention to pass crypto regulation legislation by the end of the year, aiming to balance innovation with common-sense regulations.
Bitwise acquires ETC Group
Bitwise has acquired ETC Group, expanding its assets under management to over $4.5 billion and adding nine European-listed digital asset ETPs to its offerings.
- The acquisition strengthens Bitwise's expansion into Europe and allows the company to offer European investors new innovative ETPs.
- Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley highlighted the acquisition's role in serving European investors and expanding their product suite with innovative ETPs.
- Bitwise's spot bitcoin ETF BITB on Friday recorded $54.07 million in trading volume, while its spot ether ETF ETHW brought in $4.12 million in daily volume.
Shaquille O’Neal NFT case partially dismissed
A Miami court ruled that Shaquille O’Neal was involved as a "seller" in the Solana NFT project Astrals but dismissed claims that he was a "control person" in the unregistered securities class action lawsuit.
- The court found that O’Neal promoted Astrals across multiple online platforms, but the project’s value plummeted after his departure following the FTX collapse.
- The judge rejected O’Neal's motion to dismiss the claim that Astrals NFTs and Galaxy tokens are financial securities, though he did dismiss the "control person" allegation.
- O’Neal’s legal team contends that he neither controlled the project nor that Astrals NFTs and Galaxy tokens qualify as securities, with a deadline of Sept. 12 to respond to the allegations.
Pump.Fun revenue nears $100 million
Pump.Fun, a memecoin generator on Solana, is approaching $100 million in cumulative revenue, with current revenue at $94.5 million according to DeFiLlama data.
- Since its launch in January 2024, the platform has facilitated the creation of over 1.8 million memecoins, capitalizing on Solana’s low transaction fees.
- The platform uses a bonding curve model; when coin prices increase with demand and reach a market cap of $69,000, liquidity is transferred to Raydium and burned.
- Recent changes have boosted token generation, but some users have raised concerns about the quality and long-term value of the projects.
Fabric Cryptography raises $33 million
Fabric Cryptography raised $33 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx.
- The funding will support the development of Verifiable Processing Unit (VPU), a cryptography-specific chip designed to improve the speed and cost of cryptographic workloads.
- Fabric Cryptography has already secured tens of millions of dollars in pre-orders for the VPU and is developing a software stack and cloud infrastructure to support growing demand.
In the next 24 hours
Eurozone year-over-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) gets released
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AUTHOR
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.
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