Bullish, the institutional crypto exchange backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, is targeting a valuation of up to $4.23 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing submitted on Aug. 4.

The company is offering 20.3 million shares priced between $28 and $31, potentially raising as much as $629.3 million, Reuters reported the same day.

If successful, Bullish would debut at a steep discount to the $9 billion valuation it once pursued in a failed 2021 merger with a blank-check company. That earlier deal was scrapped in 2022 due to regulatory uncertainty.

This IPO attempt comes amid a friendlier policy environment under the Trump administration, including the recent passage of the GENIUS Act, which outlines the first federal guidelines for stablecoins and has helped reinvigorate interest in crypto-related equities.

Bullish, led by former New York Stock Exchange president Thomas Farley, said in its prospectus that it plans to convert a substantial portion of the IPO proceeds into U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins with the support of one or more token issuers. The move mirrors the recent trend among crypto firms to anchor reserves in regulated digital dollars.

While Bullish posted a $349 million loss in the first quarter of 2025, driven largely by mark-to-market declines in its crypto holdings, investors are likely to focus more on core exchange profitability and operational efficiency.

The offering is being led by J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, and Citigroup. Shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BLSH.”

Bullish’s filing comes just days after Coinbase, the largest publicly traded crypto exchange, reported a decline in second-quarter profit amid sluggish trading activity. Despite the dip, broader investor sentiment appears to be shifting toward long-term structural plays in the digital asset space.

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LTCBTC Spike Fizzles After Bitcoin Dominance Rebounds

According to CRYPTOWZRD, Litecoin and its BTC pair (LTCBTC) both ended the day with bearish daily candle closes, signaling potential short-term weakness. Despite showing some upward momentum earlier in the day, the broader market conditions shifted, impacting Litecoin’s price action significantly.

LTCBTC experienced a brief spike, primarily triggered by a drop in Bitcoin dominance. This short-lived move created a temporary window for bullish momentum in Litecoin. However, the gains were not sustained, and much of the spike was quickly retraced as Bitcoin dominance began to rebound.

As Bitcoin regained strength, Litecoin’s price action closely mirrored the movements of BTC and LTCBTC. This correlation led Litecoin to test the $112 resistance level once more, but the rejection at that zone caused it to lose ground and slide back toward the $96 support region.

CRYPTOWZRD noted that any significant upside for Litecoin will likely depend on LTCBTC turning bullish again, a move that typically coincides with a drop in Bitcoin dominance. Until that shift occurs, the path higher remains uncertain, and traders may need to remain cautious of potential downside pressure. For now, the expert’s focus is shifting to lower timeframes, where he aims to identify short-term formations for scalping opportunities. 

Volatility Expected To Increase Near Key Levels For Litecoin

CRYPTOWZRD concluded his analysis by noting that the intraday chart for Litecoin showed a clear bearish structure throughout the day. Price action lacked strength, and any upward movement was quickly met with resistance. This points to ongoing uncertainty in the short term, with sellers still maintaining some control.

Looking ahead, he emphasized that a clean reversal and reclaim of the $102 resistance zone could shift momentum. If Litecoin manages to hold above that level, it may open the door for a push toward the $112 resistance area. 

As his final verdict, CRYPTOWZRD warned that if Bitcoin doesn’t provide a strong directional move soon, Litecoin could continue to trade sideways with choppy volatility over the weekend. In the meantime, patience is key — traders should wait for a more mature, high-probability setup before entering new positions.

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Matador Technologies, a Canadian Bitcoin firm, is setting out to boost its crypto stash in a big way. The company now holds 77.4 BTC but plans to scale that to 1,000 units by the end of 2026.

Based on reports, it has also filed a CAD $900 million shelf prospectus in Canada that could back up to 6,000 BTC in total purchases by 2027. Short‑term targets mix with long‑term vision.

Board Sets Clear Targets

According to Matador’s recent announcement, the Toronto‑based company wants to own roughly 1% of all Bitcoin. That level would slot it into the top 20 public companies holding the top crypto asset worldwide.

To hit that mark, Matador is working toward an interim goal of 1,000 BTC by December 31, 2026. Then it will push on toward as many as 6,000 BTC by the end of 2027—if market prices and financing line up.

$MATA Board just green-lit our long-term #Bitcoin treasury strategy!
1,000 BTC by 2026 | 6,000 BTC by 2027
Goal: own ~1 % of Bitcoin’s fixed supply
Current stash ≈ 77.4 BTC
BTC-denominated products → more BTC on the balance sheet

Matador Technologies — shaping…

— Matador Technologies (@buymatador) July 16, 2025

A Layered Funding Strategy

Matador won’t rely on a single funding source. It plans at‑the‑market equity offerings alongside convertible financings. Sale of non‑core assets will add capital.

The company may tap BTC‑backed credit lines and look for acquisitions or partnerships to raise more funds. Management says it will weigh each purchase against price, timing, and impact on Bitcoin per share. That way, every deal counts toward boosting holdings without veering off course.

Expanding Into New Markets

The company’s playbook isn’t just about buying Bitcoin. It features a four‑part “compounding flywheel.” First, Matador will build its reserve. Next, it will seek yield through volatility‑based tools and synthetic mining. Then it plans Bitcoin‑denominated products for investors.

Finally, it aims to back blockchain infrastructure and DeFi startups. In June 2025, Matador broke ground in Europe with its Frankfurt listing under “IU3,” and it also moved into India, taking a 24% stake in HODL Systems.

Growth Among Peers

Matador joins a growing crowd of public firms stocking up on Bitcoin. US‑based Semler Scientific has outlined plans to add about 105,000 BTC by 2027 under a new Director of Bitcoin Strategy.

Tokyo‑listed Metaplanet already passed its own 10,000 BTC target for 2025 and is racing toward 210,000 BTC by the end of 2027. Each company uses equity, debt, or operating cash flow to fuel its buys.

Matador’s leadership says every step will hinge on market moves, investor interest, and regulatory approval. That mix of factors could speed up or slow down the plan. But with clear milestones and a multi‑channel funding roadmap, the Canadian Bitcoin firm is betting it can build a strong reserve.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

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Founded in 2021, KCEX is a centralized exchange that users easily open a basic spot or futures account with nothing more than an email address. While the onboarding is intentionally light, the platform still operates as a US FinCEN–registered Money Services Business, giving users a measure of regulatory reassurance without the usual identity-verification detour.

Fees: Zero Is the New Normal

KCEX’s strongest headline is its pricing. Spot trades cost absolutely nothing for both makers and takers, and futures makers also pay zero. In the meantime, futures takers are charged just 0.01%, a fraction of the industry average.

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Withdrawal fees on most assets are waived as well, so value isn’t reduced when moving funds on or off the exchange.

Trading Tools and Market Breadth

Under the hood, a matching engine rated at 100k transactions per second keeps orders clipping along with low latency. Users can choose from 1,000+ spot pairs and 500+ futures contracts, with leverage up to 125x on selected markets.

The web interface prioritizes clean charts and quick order placement, while the mobile app delivers full functionality for on-the-go monitoring. That said, KCEX aims to provide the depth and breadth to match, no matter if you’re dollar-cost averaging into major assets like Bitcoin
BTC


$117,969.75

Security and Regulatory Footing

KCEX couples its no-KYC entry point with standard centralized exchange safeguards: cold storage custody for the bulk of customer funds, end-to-end encryption, and periodic security audits. Besides, users who want to increase their withdrawal limit to 30 BTC, do have to pass basic KYC verification.

The FinCEN registration signals that the exchange intends to stay on the right side of US compliance without forcing every newcomer through Know Your Customer hoops on day one. For many traders, that blend of privacy, transparency, and oversight hits a practical middle ground.

Ethena Labs reached $290.2 million in total protocol revenue on July 9, trailing only Tether, Circle, and Sky among stablecoin issuers. 

Token Terminal data show that the stablecoin issuer reached $100 million in cumulative revenue 251 days after its launch, making it the second-fastest protocol to cross this threshold.

Daily fees averaged $3.1 million during the past month as traders continued to mint and hedge the synthetic-dollar token USDe. Ethena’s path to nine-figure revenue took 251 days, faster than Uniswap’s 980-day sprint in 2020 but slower than memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which hit the mark in 217 days late last year. 

Core income is generated by carrying long spot and short perpetual futures positions across multiple exchanges, a delta-neutral strategy that converts funding-rate spreads into protocol earnings credited to stakers of the yield token sUSDe.

Back-end Treasury data shows that 94% of backing assets remain on centralized venues, where Ethena’s automated execution system balances collateral and hedges in real time. The remaining collateral is held in liquid-staking tokens to capture staking rewards while maintaining a neutral net exposure. 

The protocol redirects 20% of gross fees to buy ENA on the open market, a mechanism that has burned 58 million tokens since February, according to on-chain trackers.

SEC dialogue on payment stablecoin status

Ethena’s General Counsel, Zach Rosenberg, and attorneys from Morrison Cohen met with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Task Force on July 1 to request clarity on “synthetic dollars,” such as USDe. 

A meeting memorandum released by the SEC shows that the team argued that USDe functions as a payment instrument rather than a security because holders do not rely on the issuer’s efforts for profit and because redemption rights track underlying reserves, not the issuer’s balance-sheet performance. 

The submission cites two pending bills, the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act, that would carve out a federal licensing lane for payment stablecoin issuers. Ethena told staff that USDe falls outside both drafts because the token can fluctuate slightly around $1 and carries no legal promise of par redemption, leaving it in regulatory limbo.

Company representatives urged the commission to treat synthetic dollars as a separate class and to coordinate with bank regulators if Congress finalizes a payment stablecoin framework. 

Ethena remains barred from US retail distribution pending formal guidance, so new dollar inflows primarily come from offshore funds and market-making desks that hedge their exposure on centralized exchanges. 

The protocol’s revenue pace slowed in May when average perpetual funding spreads compressed below an 8% annualized rate. Still, fee intake rebounded to $3.8 million per day in early July as renewed long-bias returned the basis to double-digit territory.

Ethena’s request for formal SEC feedback remains under review, according to the meeting log.

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World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance platform linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s family, has unveiled a proposal that would allow its WLFI governance token to become transferable and tradeable across the wider crypto market.

Currently confined within its own protocol, the WLFI token cannot be traded externally, restricting price discovery and limiting participation in governance. The team initially hinted at the new proposal last month.

The new proposal aims to shift the project toward a more open and decentralized model by enabling token trading on secondary markets such as decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer platforms.

If the community endorses the plan, holders of WLFI tokens will gain expanded voting powers over key areas, including token emissions, ecosystem incentives, and treasury management.

The initiative comes as Trump’s deep involvement in digital assets continues to draw criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who have raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Transitioning WLFI to a decentralized structure could ease some of the political pressure currently stalling comprehensive crypto regulation efforts in Congress.

The Trump family recently reduced its ownership stake in World Liberty Financial by 20%, down from an initial 75% holding. Financial disclosures filed in June showed that President Trump had recorded $57 million in profits from WLFI alone.

Across his broader digital asset portfolio, including the Official Trump memecoin, non-fungible token sales, and holdings in other cryptocurrencies, Trump’s net worth has grown by an estimated $620 million. Digital assets now account for about 9% of his total $6.4 billion fortune.

In June, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the COIN Act in response to the president’s crypto ventures. The act seeks to prohibit the President, executive branch officials, and their immediate families from issuing or promoting specific cryptocurrencies while in office.

WLFI is also conducting an independent audit of its USD1 stablecoin, which is seen as having strong potential to become a significant player in the market. USD1 currently has a circulating supply of $2.2 billion and was recently airdropped to WLFI holders to test on-chain distribution.

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