Circle Rejects Ripple's ~$5B Bid

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Ripple $XRP offered to buy Circle $USDC for $4B - $5B; Circle rejected the offer as too low, but Ripple remains interested.

• US SEC delays decisions on Franklin $XRP & Bitwise Dogecoin $DOGE ETFs; to wait until mid-June to decide next steps.

• Solana $SOL Policy Institute submits Project Open proposal to the US SEC; the project enables the issuance and trading of equity securities on public blockchain networks.

• Coinbase's $COIN Base reaches Stage 1 Decentralization; launched permissionless fault proofs & added security council to contract upgrade process.

• US SEC ends investigation into PayPal's $PYPL stablecoin, PayPal USD $PYUSD without enforcement; PayPal received a subpoena from the SEC in November 2023.

• Tornado Cash $TORN sanctions imposed by US OFAC ruled illegal by US Federal Judge; OFAC prohibited from imposing sanctions on Tornado Cash again.

Alpha

• ⭐️ Aztec posts "Tomorrow, we open the door. Follow us and turn notifications on." on X.

• Karak launches K1 NFT collection; "loyal Karakians" are eligible to mint.

• Espresso to launch The Composables NFT collection in May; more details to be shared on Espresso Community Call #2 via Espresso Discord on May 1st.

• Space and Time launch the Space and Time Foundation; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Avantis launches End Game trading competition; 500M Trading XP to be distributed over 5 weeks.

• May 2025 Crypto Calendar by Layergg.

Airdrops

• Movement delays $MOVE MoveDrop; cites ongoing investigation into market maker abnormalities, governance changes, and a sybil attack as reasons for the delay.

• ⭐️ MilkyWay launches $MILK airdrop claim; mPoint holders, Moolitia NFT holders, & milkINIT testers are eligible.

• ICYMI Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Sign launches $SIGN airdrop claim; Sign SBT holders, EthSign OG users, & more are eligible.

• ICYMI Initia launches $INIT airdrop claim; testnet participants, power users of LayerZero, IBC, & MilkTIA, and social contributors are eligible.

Finance News

• US March PCE Inflation falls to 2.3%, above expectations of 2.2%; Core PCE inflation falls to 2.6%, in-line with expectations of 2.6%.

• US reportedly reaches out to China for tariff discussions; though source is a Weibo account affiliated with state-run China Central Television.

• China reportedly creates secret list of US-made goods exempt from 125% tariffs; the list remains largely undisclosed to the public and is still evolving.

• ⭐️ US & Ukraine officially sign minerals deal; establishes US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.

• Semler Scientific $SMLR buys 165 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$15.7M at $94,931 per BTC; now holds 3,467 BTC worth ~$327M.

• Robinhood $HOOD reports Q1 2025 earnings; reports $252M in crypto-related revenue, down from $358M in Q4 2024.

• Tesla $TSLA denies reports of searching for a CEO to succeed Elon Musk; adds the Board "is highly confident in his ability to continue executing on the exciting growth plan ahead."

Security and Exploits

• ImmuneFi releases April 2025 Crypto Losses Report; reports $92M in losses from hacks across 15 incidents, up from $41M in March.

• Ledger launches Transaction Check feature; enables real-time transaction verification powered by Blockaid.

• Grinex crypto exchange suspected to be a rebrand of Garantex; US authorities seized Garantex domains in March.

• Address Poisoning by RevokeCash.

Token Unlocks

• Sui $SUI / ~$259M / MAY 01st
• ZetaChain $ZETA / ~$12M / MAY 01st
• Ethena $ENA / ~$13M / MAY 02nd
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• ⭐️ Miden raises $25M in Seed funding led by a16z Crypto, 1kx, & Hack VC.

• Camp Network raises $25M in Series A funding led by 1kx & Blockchain Capital.

• Unto Labs raises $14.4M in funding from Electric Capital & Framework Ventures.

• Re7 Capital launches $10M fund to invest in SocialFi.

• Terminal3 raises $8M in Seed funding led by Illuminate Financial & CMCC Global.

• ZAR raises $7M in Seed funding led by DragonFly Capital & VanEck.

• Gata raises $4M in Seed funding from several investors.

• ROVR raises $2.6M in Seed funding led by Borderless Capital & GEODNET.

• Kaia raises an undisclosed amount in funding led by Blockchain Capital & 1kx.

The Degen Farmer