50T Investor Newsletter (Oct 27)
Oct 27, 2025
Hi Investors,
Momentum held firm this week as institutional adoption, product expansion, and regulatory clarity continued to drive the market forward. Coinbase deepened its push into AI-native payments and onchain capital formation, Kraken reported a triple-digit revenue surge ahead of a likely 2026 IPO, and JPMorgan began accepting BTC and ETH as collateral for institutional credit. The NHL inked multi-year deals with Kalshi and Polymarket, Ledger rolled out identity- and agent-aware hardware, and Trump moved to install a pro-crypto CFTC chair - underscoring how crypto is being pulled into regulated finance, consumer finance, and mainstream culture at once.
Below are the key developments:
Market Moves
Former Binance CEO CZ received a presidential pardon from President Trump.
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NHL Partners With Kalshi and Polymarket in Landmark Multi-Year Deal
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Zelle is exploring a stablecoin integration to extend its $1T+ annual payments network abroad, enabling faster, cheaper transfers through onchain settlement
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JPMorgan to Accept Bitcoin and Ether as Institutional Loan Collateral
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Trump Nominates Michael Selig to Lead the CFTC
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FalconX to Acquire 21Shares, Merging Prime Brokerage and ETF Issuance
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Polymarket to serve as the clearinghouse for DraftKings’ new prediction market product following its acquisition of Railbird.
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Portfolio Headlines
 | Coinbase Launches Payments MCP to Let AI Agents Transact Onchain Coinbase Acquires Echo for $375MM to Build Onchain Capital Formation Stack |
 | Gemini Launches Solana-Themed Credit Card With Auto-Staking Rewards |
 | Kraken Reports Q3 Revenue Up 114% YoY Ahead of 2026 IPO |
 | Ledger Launches Nano Gen5, a Wallet Built for Identity and AI Integration |
 | Ledn reported record Bitcoin lending activity in Q3, originating $392MM in BTC-backed loans and surpassing $1Bn in cumulative year-to-date originations → Link |
Charts of the Week
USD₮ reached 500MM total users this month, up from just 3.1MM in January 2020 - highlighting the scale of Tether’s global adoption over the last five years
Onchain activity is growing fastest in developing countries, where mobile wallet penetration is leading global usage - signaling crypto’s increasing role in emerging market financial systems
Monthly active crypto users are now estimated at 40MM–70MM globally (per a16z), with total global crypto ownership over 700MM
Industry News
Notable Raises
BitcoinOS – Bitcoin DeFi Infrastructure
BitcoinOS raised $10MM in a funding round led by Castle Island Ventures and Franklin Templeton to scale institutional-grade Bitcoin DeFi and BTC-backed lending.
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Beam – Stablecoin Payments Platform
Beam was acquired by Modern Treasury in an all-stock deal valued at $40MM, integrating stablecoin settlement and onchain payment capabilities into Modern Treasury’s enterprise platform.
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Cybrid – Stablecoin Infrastructure for Financial Institutions
Cybrid raised $10MM in a funding round led by Golden Ventures and Harvest Ventures to expand stablecoin issuance and compliance infrastructure for banks and fintechs.
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Pave Bank – Programmable Banking Platform
Pave Bank raised $39MM in a round joined by Tether, plus participation from Valar Ventures and Kingsway Capital, to expand programmable banking and tokenized deposit infrastructure.
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Sign – Sovereign Blockchain Infrastructure
Sign raised $25MM in a Series B led by YZI Labs, with participation from Framework Ventures, CMCC Global, and Variant Fund, to expand its stablecoin payment network across emerging markets.
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Industry News
Internal debate at the Ethereum Foundation surfaced over governance and leadership direction following public comments from Vitalik Buterin.
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Solana’s Saga smartphone will stop receiving security updates as Solana Mobile shifts focus to the new Seeker device rollout.
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Kadena’s token dropped sharply after the company behind the network said it will cease operations, citing unsustainable costs and limited adoption.
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Blockchain.com has held preliminary talks to go public through a SPAC merger, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
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TRM Labs reported that global stablecoin transaction volume rose 83% year-over-year, reaching $12T across public blockchains.
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Kyrgyzstan announced plans to launch a national stablecoin on BNB Chain and develop a CBDC in partnership with adviser CZ.
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Revolut secured a MiCA license in Cyprus, allowing it to expand regulated crypto services across the EU.
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Custodia Bank launched the Vantage pilot, a tokenized deposit network enabling U.S. banks to settle payments onchain using tokenized dollar deposits.
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Aave completed an acqui-hire of the Stable Finance team to accelerate development of consumer-facing DeFi applications.
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Aave DAO approved a token buyback program using protocol revenue, marking its first coordinated capital return to token holders.
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Crypto.com filed an application with the OCC for a federal trust charter, joining Coinbase, Ripple, and others pursuing national licensing.
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Fireblocks acquired Dynamic, a web3 identity and wallet onboarding platform, to expand its authentication and user management capabilities for enterprise clients.
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Jupiter launched a Kalshi-powered prediction market for the F1 Mexico Grand Prix, marking its first integration of event-based trading.
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Looking Ahead
Oct. 26 - 28: Money 20/20 (Vegas)
Oct. 28: Bloomberg Volatility Conference (NYC)
Media & Insights
📄 Research Piece of the Week: Nic Carter
Bitcoin and the Quantum Problem
📌 Post of the Week: Dan Tapiero
Middle East DAE Boom
🎤Podcast of the Week: Zr Talks
Episode 8: Chris Newhouse