Coindesk

Solana SOL jumped about 5% Monday morning amid rumors that a SOL Staking exchange-trade fund (ETF) by Rex Shares and Osprey Funds could start trading on the market as soon as Wednesday.The token later fell back slightly, now trading up about 2.3% over the past 24 hours at $157 at press time.A spokesperson for Osprey confirmed to CoinDesk that the "fund will launch Wednesday," following a post on X by the automated headline account "Unfolded."Just last week, Rex filed a letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking whether comments had been resolved for their filing. Later that day, the asset manager posted on X that the ETF was “coming soon,” suggesting that the SEC had no further comments.The...

Self described 'DeFi-first' layer-2 blockchain Katana has launched its mainnet after receiving $180 million in pre-deposits.Deposits flooded in after Katana was revealed to the public less than a month ago. DefiLlama data shows that deposited jumped from $75M to $180M between June 1 Depositors will receive randomized reward NFTs called Krates, as well as a share of 70 million KAT tokens, Katana's native token. Upon launch, yield farmers will be able earn more KAT by staking on platforms like Morpho and Sushi. The blockchain aims to solve one of DeFi's largest problems: Liquidity.A lack of liquidity can lead to a multitude of issues including slippage, inefficient pricing and unsustainable yields.Some of the mechanisms Katana will use to solve that...

The crypto industry's political-finance arm, the towering campaign-funding entity known as Fairshake, dropped another $1 million into the coffers of a special-election candidate hoping to replace a Virginia Democrat who died in office, Representative Gerald Connolly.The candidate favored by the industry's chief political action committee, James Walkinshaw, won the Democrats' so-called firehouse primary over the weekend, in which the party conducted its own polling to determine its chosen candidate among a field of nine. The general election to formally select the Fairfax County region's next member of Congress is set for Sept. 9, though the Democrat incumbent took about two thirds of the vote in the regular election last year, giving Walkinshaw a heavy advantage. "We look forward to James...

The Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 137.245 bitcoin worth about $14.77 million to crypto exchange Binance on June 30, according to blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence. This fresh transaction comes as Bhutan’s total bitcoin holdings have grown to 11,924 BTC, valued at approximately $1.28 billion at current market prices of around $107,000. The small Himalayan kingdom has become a significant player in the crypto space, with its bitcoin stash representing a sizable chunk of its economy. The holdings were built largely through state-backed mining operations under Druk Holdings, working alongside Bitdeer Technologies, which is expanding local mining capacity to 600 megawatts by 2025.The latest Binance deposit has fueled speculation about potential selling pressure, although no one from the government has...

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) has secured $250 million via a private placement of common stock and will use the funds to launch an ether (ETH) treasury.When the deal closes, expected July 3, the Las Vegas-based miner said it will rank among the largest publicly traded holders of ETH.The financing, priced at $4.50 a share, brought together investors including Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Kraken, Galaxy Digital and Republic. Cantor Fitzgerald advised lead investor MOZAYYX, while ThinkEquity placed the deal.BitMine justified its choice of ether as a primary reserve asset saying Ethereum currently leads in stablecoin payments, tokenized assets, and decentralized financial applications.“By having a direcT ETH treasury position, the company has access to native protocol-level activities, such as staking and decentralized...