LayerZero Acquires Stargate for $120M

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ LayerZero $ZRO acquires Stargate for ~$120M; Wormhole had offered $120M cash; Axelar & Across also showed interest.

• Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, & Multicoin Capital to raise $1B to establish digital asset treasury firm focused on Solana $SOL; Cantor Fitzgerald hired as lead banker.

• Pantera Capital to raise $1.25B for new Solana $SOL treasury company; to begin with an initial $500M raise followed by $750M through warrants.

• B Strategy to launch $BNB treasury company; aims to raise $1B; backed by YZi Labs.

• ⭐️ Donald Trump Jr joins Polymarket as Strategic Advisor; Trump Jr's fund, 1789 Capital, invests in Polymarket.

• ⭐️ John Wang joins Kalshi as Head of Crypto; Wang was previously a researcher at Paradigm.

• Digital Asset Investment Products saw ~$1.43B in outflows last week; Bitcoin $BTC ~$1B outflows, Ethereum $ETH ~$440M outflows, Solana $SOL ~$12M inflows, Ripple $XRP ~$25M inflows.

Alpha

• Airdrops, Checkers, & Points by Olimpio.

• World Liberty Financial $WLFI launches $USD1 points program; trade and/or hold USD1 to earn points.

• Cap Frontier Program epoch 2 to begin & epoch 1 to end on September 1st; $cUSD holders to earn 10X caps for 6 weeks starting September 1st.

• Relay launches Relay 2.0; features "a sharper identity, refreshed visuals, and a clearer mission."

• Universal teases "something this week" on X.

Airdrops

• Camp to launch $CAMP airdrop claim soon; Summit Series participants & Camp TrailHeads NFT holders are eligible.

• ⭐️ Huma launches $HUMA season 1 airdrop claim; HUMA stakers, liquidity providers, & more are eligible.

• Avantis announces $AVNT tokenomics; 50% AVNT supply allocated to the Community: 12.5% allocated to airdrop #1.

• Union announces $U tokenomics; 12% of U supply allocated for Community Incentives: 4% for Genesis Drop & Testnet, 8% for Future Incentives.

• ICYMI Airdrops, Checkers, & Points (August 12th) by Olimpio.

Finance News

• US President Trump fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook; Cook has since disputed Trump's authority to fire her.

• Strategy $MSTR buys an additional 3,081 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$356.9M at ~$115,829 per BTC; now holds 632,457 BTC worth ~$69B.

• Metaplanet $3350.T buys an additional 103 Bitcoin $BTC for ~$11.7M at ~$113,491 per BTC; not holds 18,991 BTC worth ~$2.1B; to also be added to the FTSE Japan Index.

• Bitmine $BMNR buys an additional 190,526 Ethereum $ETH; now holds 1,713,899 ETH worth ~$7.5B.

• SharpLink $SBET buys an additional 56,533 Ethereum $ETH for ~$252M at ~$4,462 per ETH; now holds 797,704 ETH worth ~$3.7B.

• ETHZilla $ETHZ approves $250M share repurchase plan; holds 102,237 Ethereum $ETH worth ~$446M.

• Sharps Technology $STSS to raise over $400M to establish Solana $SOL treasury; investors include ParaFi Capital & Pantera Capital.

• ⭐️ Trump Media & Technology Group $DJT & Crypto[.]com $CRO to form Trump Media Group CRO Strategy; raised $6.42B to build CRO treasury.

• Webull $BULL to relaunch crypto trading services for US customers starting August 25th; previously suspended the service in 2023 when preparing for its IPO.

Security and Exploits

• Google to require all Android apps to be registered by verified developers; to go into effect in September 2026 in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, & Thailand.

• ICYMI TRM Labs announces the Beacon Network, a real-time intelligence-sharing system that helps law enforcement, crypto exchanges, DeFi services, and stablecoin issuers stop illicit funds.

• ICYMI Apple releases security update patching zero-day vulnerability; flaw exploited in targeted attacks; affects iOS, iPadOS, & macOS.

Token Unlocks

• AltLayer $ALT / ~$8M / AUG 25th
• Sahara AI $SAHARA / ~$7M / AUG 26th
• Huma $HUMA / ~$9M / AUG 26th
• Sophon $SOPH / ~$8M / AUG 28th
• Jupiter $JUP / ~$23M / AUG 28th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Hemi raises $15M in funding led by Republic, YZi Labs, & HyperChain Capital.

• Magne AI raises $10M in Strategic funding from several investors.

• Trepa raises $420K in Pre-Seed funding led by Colosseum.

• USD AI raises an undisclosed amount in Strategic funding from YZi Labs.

• Centrifuge raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Republic.

• EdgeX raises an undisclosed amount in funding from KuCoin Ventures.

• Panora raises an undisclosed amount in funding led by Frictionless Capital.

The Degen Farmer