Top Stories of The Week
Wall Street’s next crypto play may be IPO-ready crypto firms, not altcoins
Wall Street’s growing interest in late-stage cryptocurrency firms could disrupt the traditional boom-and-bust cycle of digital assets, according to new research.
Crypto financial services firm Matrixport said Friday that more than $200 billion worth of crypto companies are preparing initial public offerings (IPOs), which may raise between $30 billion and $45 billion in new capital.
Matrixport said investor focus is rotating away from early-stage bets toward scalable, IPO-ready companies positioned for public markets.
Continued selling by Bitcoin miners and early adopters has “nearly neutralized ETF and treasury inflows, reducing volatility and dampening Bitcoin’s appeal to risk-seeking investors,” Matrixport said in a Friday X post. “Wall Street, however, has every incentive to extend the bull market, with up to $226 billion in crypto IPOs waiting in the pipeline that could raise $30 – $45 billion in new capital.”
Judge tosses lawsuit against Yuga Labs over failure to satisfy Howey test
A US judge has dismissed an investor lawsuit against Web3 company Yuga Labs, ruling that the case failed to show non-fungible tokens (NFTs) meet the legal definition of securities.
Judge Fernando M. Olguin ruled the plaintiffs did not demonstrate how Bored Ape Yacht Club, ApeCoin or other NFTs sold by Yuga satisfied the three conditions of the Howey test, a standard used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether a transaction qualifies as an investment contract. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2022.
Yuba Labs marketed its NFTs as digital collectibles with membership perks to an exclusive club, making them consumables rather than investment contracts, Olguin said.
CleanSpark sells $48.7M in Bitcoin, treasury tops 13K BTC in September
Bitcoin miner CleanSpark ended September with 13,011 BTC in its treasury after reporting year-over-year gains in efficiency and output.
The company said monthly production rose 27% from September 2024, with 629 Bitcoin mined, and sold 445 BTC for roughly $48.7 million at an average price of $109,568. In its Friday update, CleanSpark said that fleet efficiency improved 26% year over year, while its average operating hashrate for the month was 45.6 EH/s.
CleanSpark has been selling part of its monthly Bitcoin production since April as part of a push to become financially self-sufficient. It also opened an institutional Bitcoin trading desk to facilitate sales. In August, the company generated $60.7 million from the sale of 533.5 BTC.
CleanSpark’s shares on Nasdaq rose 5.28% following the report, gaining more than 23% over the week, according to Yahoo Finance.
Crypto treasury ‘bubble’ fears overblown: TON Strategy CEO
While a recent wave of corporate digital asset treasuries is starting to show signs of a bubble, the long-term outlook is positive, according to TON Strategy CEO Veronika Kapustina.
“I think, look, obviously, it looks like it’s a bubble. As in, all the indicators look like it’s a bubble,” Kapustina told Cointelegraph during the Token2049 conference in Singapore.
Kapustina explained that they are different from other bubbles we’ve seen in crypto and TradFi “because it’s a new segment of finance.” DATs became “the trade of the summer,” and people saw it as “fast money,” with a lot of “fast money going in,” she said.
Trump nominates acting FDIC chair to officially head the agency
US President Donald Trump sent the nomination of acting chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Travis Hill, to the Senate for consideration to assume the government role for a five-year term.
According to congressional records, Trump’s nomination of Hill as FDIC chair was sent to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.
Before assuming his role at the FDIC, Hill issued a statement that the department should offer additional guidance on digital assets and tokenization and spoke out against allegations of US authorities debanking companies due to their ties to crypto. He followed with a letter aimed at financial institutions in March, clarifying that banks could engage with digital assets as a ”permissible activity.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $122,394 Ether (ETH) at $4,498 and XRP at $2.99. The total market cap is at $4.18 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are ZCash (ZEC) at 167.51%, DoubleZero (2Z) at 82.51% and SPX6900 (SPX) at 42.41%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are MYX Finance (MYX) at 53.09%, Plasma (XPL) at 35.48% and MemeCore (M) at 5.03%%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
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