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Public Keys: Circle and Coinbase Get GENIUS Bump, Bitcoin Treasuries on Shaky Ground?

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In brief

  • Circle’s stock skyrocketed following the Senate’s GENIUS Act vote, with shares climbing from $156 to $248 and analysts predicting the stablecoin market could reach $2 trillion.
  • Bitcoin treasury companies like Semler Scientific are struggling with thin premiums over their BTC holdings, while newer entrants like Fold are raising capital for Bitcoin purchases.
  • Tron is pursuing a Nasdaq listing through reverse merger with SRM Entertainment, while Bitdeer’s stock fell after a $330M capital raise and FalconX explores IPO options.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week: Circle and Coinbase surge on stablecoin legislation movement, the Bitcoin treasury model raises concerns, and sources tell Decrypt that another crypto firm is eyeing an IPO this year.

Stroke of GENIUS

It makes sense that this week’s Senate vote in favor of the GENIUS Act was great for stablecoin issuers—but Circle has gone above and beyond.

The company’s CRCL shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange, opened at $156.36 on Tuesday—the day of the Senate’s historic vote. Since then, the stock has skyrocketed, hitting a new peak just shy of $249 on Friday and finishing the day above $240.

For those keeping track, that means the company’s share price peaked at eight times that of its $31 IPO. It’s been just over two weeks since CRCL started trading.

Circle has been helped along by the fact that Wall Street analysts can’t help but rate the company highly. Jeff Cantwell, a senior analyst at Seaport Research Partners, initiated coverage on CRCL today with a buy rating and $235 price target.

Circle made it to that target before the bell even rang, dipped, and then shot past it.

“Circle’s strategy is to build the largest, most widely used stablecoin network in the world… This strikes us as a ‘TAM/adoption’ story,” Cantwell wrote in a note shared with Decrypt. TAM is Wall Street shorthand for total addressable market. And Cantwell reckons most of his peers are underestimating just how big the stablecoin market will become.



“We think the overall stablecoin market cap will reach $500 billion by the end of next year; longer-term, we think it ultimately can reach $2 trillion,” he said. That would mean the $260 billion stablecoin market will double in the next six months.

Buckle up, kids.

For what it’s worth, Coinbase, which trades on the Nasdaq under the COIN ticker and co-founded USDC with Circle, has received its own GENIUS-inspired gains. Its stock rose about 30% this week and closed Friday above $308, up more than 4% on the day.

Not an exact science?

Michael Saylor, Strategy co-founder and chairman, famously quipped about Bitcoin, “There is no second best.” It’s even been turned into a song.

But it’s starting to look like Stategy’s Bitcoin treasury company blueprint is really difficult to follow—and that’s not for lack of Saylor & Co. trying to spread the gospel.

Earlier this week, Nasdaq-listed healthcare firm Semler Scientific appeared to be flashing warning signs to investors. On Tuesday, the company was valued at a razor-thin premium compared to its Bitcoin holdings. Its mNAV, or multiple-to-net asset value had fallen to 1.07.

mNAV is a rough measure of how much premium investors assign to its Bitcoin holdings.

Since Tuesday, Semler’s mNAV has improved slightly to 1.23, according to the company’s website.

That’s after the company said Friday morning that it wants to amass 105,000 Bitcoin by 2027. That pushed the stock to a closing price of $36.14, or 13% higher than its Wednesday close. But the company’s shares are still way below the $55.05 they were at the start of the year and half what they were in December, when shares were trading above $78.

Now financial services firm Fold is selling $250 million worth of shares in an effort to turn that cash into a BTC treasury. The company’s shares were trading for $4.57 when it made its announcement on Tuesday. By Friday afternoon, they had slipped to $4.50.

Funny enough, the Bitcoin treasury companies with the best unrealized gains are Tesla and Block, Inc.. The companies have an average cost basis of $33,539 and $30,405, respectively, which means their holdings have net unrealized gains that are more than three times what they paid.

Block has never sold any of its Bitcoin, but Tesla’s unrealized gains could have been even higher. Remember: The company sold 75% of its BTC in 2022, when BTC was trading around $24,000.

Other Keys

  • Tron goes public the Trump way—maybe: Justin Sun is taking Tron public by way of a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment. The company has ties to Eric Trump. Or at least it seemed that way, until the President’s son denied “public involvement”—though he’s on the advisory board of Domnari Securities, which is brokering the deal. The deal values the combined firm at $210 million and includes a $100 million token purchase from SRM.
  • Bitdeer in headlights: Bitcoin miner Bitdeer’s share price plummeted after upsizing its most recent capital raise to $330 million. The raise was not to buy Bitcoin, but rather to pay $129.6 million in zero-strike call options, $36.1 million to pay cash considerations, and the rest for data center expansion. The sale is expected to close Monday, so we’ll know soon how many investors took them up on the offering. BTDR finished the week down 12%.
  • FalconX wants to FlyPO. Crypto prime broker FalconX is in early talks for an IPO. Sources familiar with the discussions told Decrypt reporter Liz Napolitano that the company has already spoken to investment bankers and other experts about the public listing process, but hasn’t actually hired an investment bank just yet.

Edited by James Rubin

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Public Keys: Circle Keeps Surging, GameStop’s Bitcoin ‘Black Box’, Ethereum Treasury Tanks

by admin



In brief

  • Circle’s stock surged again Friday as signs of stablecoin interest and adoption continue to pile up.
  • GameStop’s shares plummeted after the company said it would offer $1.75 billion (now $2.25 billion) in convertible bonds to investors.
  • SharpLink Gaming’s share price cratered, but the firm said it now has $463 million Ethereum war chest.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week: Circle’s stock surged again to end the week while GameStop shares swoon after another bond offering—but SharpLink Gaming’s fall takes the cake.

Circle stays hot

The euphoria started to ebb, but the glossy announcements kept coming—and CRCL is surging again.

After last week’s massive launch, USDC issuer Circle has seen its stock reach new highs and then start to settle over the course of the week as the stablecoin was added to Sam Altman’s World Chain.

By late Thursday, it looked as though CRCL might continue cooling and fall below the $100 mark for the first time this week. Instead, the stock took off like a rocket again Friday, surging 25% on the day to finish at $133.56—just a few dollars shy of its all-time high mark from Monday.

Friday’s surge happened despite flaring tensions in the Middle East weighing on many assets, except for oil and gold, of course. In after-hours trading, CRCL has ticked even closer to its peak price.

The Friday surge came following a Wall Street Journal report claiming that retail giants Amazon and Walmart are among those considering launching their own stablecoins, pending passage of the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill. Senator Elizabeth Warren and consumer groups denounced the retailers’ reported plans Friday afternoon.

If Circle’s public offering really was a “moon landing moment” for stablecoins, then other companies and projects are seizing the opportunity to plan a flag next to the firm.

Among the entities that want you to know they’re using USDC: Shopify rolled out USDC stablecoin payments on Base; RippleX welcomed USDC to XRP Ledger, a move “accelerating DeFi and institutional adoption;” and Brazilian fintech Matera said it would start using the stablecoins to enable “multi-currency” operations among traditional banks, per Bloomberg.

It’s safe to say that Circle’s public offering has made crypto cool again—at least from the perspective of companies and projects looking for some positive press.



GameStop buying Bitcoin?

Does GameStop need its own Michael Saylor?

With each move that top Bitcoin-buyer Strategy makes, co-founder and Executive Chairman Saylor is often front and center, unpacking the firm’s prospects on camera as best he can—even if the veteran short sellers like Jim Chanos say that amounts to “complete financial gibberish.”

When GameStop said this week that it would offer $1.75 billion worth of convertible senior notes (since upsized to $2.25 billion) to investors, following its previous $1.5 billion raise, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen wasn’t out there explaining what the brick-and-mortar video game retailer would do with its second mountain of cash. Instead, he highlighted a shitpost on X poking fun at himself.

The company’s stock price dropped 22% to $22.12 following the announcement, showing a loss compared to when GameStop approved Bitcoin as a treasury asset in late March. Its shares traded around $25.40 then. On Friday, shares finished essentially flat at $22.14, per Yahoo Finance.

Are GameStop investors looking for an outspoken advocate to explain why they should be excited about the firm’s recent Bitcoin pivot?

“What I think is very important for a Bitcoin treasury company is transparency and authenticity, and so far, they’ve been a black box,” Strive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole told Decrypt in a recent interview.

Although GameStop purchased 4,710 Bitcoin last month, the company won’t telegraph any future purchases, Cohen explained during his five-minute showing at a Bitcoin conference last month. The company’s announcement this week said cash raised could go toward acquisitions, operating costs, and investments (like Bitcoin).

But GameStop has owned other digital assets, too—and sold them.

SharpLink swings

Another day, another example of wild speculation about things that are just way too complex for the average person to understand on Crypto Twitter (aka X).

On Thursday, an SEC filing from SharpLink Gaming, a newly minted Ethereum treasury firm, sparked speculation that investors who had participated in a $425 million private placement not long ago had elected to sell off their shares.

The company’s stock price plummeted more than 70% on the filing’s back.

Following the speculation and plunge, Ethereum co-founder, Consensys CEO, and SharpLink board chair Joe Lubin said on X that the filing was “standard” for TradFi companies and being misrepresented. (Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt.)

Still, why did the stock chart look like a celebrity meme coin, swinging upward and then cratering rapidly?

“There’s a period of time between [the] announcement to when everything is ready to go, where the float is tiny and everyone buys it, and it basically turns into a meme stonk,” Taproot Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer said on X about crypto treasury company pivots. “That’s resolved once all the filings [are] done. […] It doesn’t mean anyone ‘rugged.’”

The price swing, and Crypto Twitter’s evolving assessment of what actually happened, appeared to overshadow an announcement of Friday that SharpLink had built a $462 million war chest of Ethereum following a recent raise and issuing some stock. Already, 95% of those funds have been deployed on-chain, earning yield through staking, the company added.

SharpLink’s stock didn’t improve Friday, however, remaining down nearly 72% since Thursday’s close at $9.21 per share.

Other keys

  • Solana ETF issuers add staking: A flurry of hopeful Solana ETF issuers updated their SEC filings late Friday to add plans to stake their assets, earning yield that could make them more attractive investments. Ethereum ETF issuers had to remove such language from their filings before last summer’s approvals, but this is a new SEC under President Trump—one much friendlier to the crypto industry.
  • Obama advisor backs a new blue: Coinbase welcomed David Plouffe, who devised former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and served as an adviser to Kamala Harris, to its Global Advisory Council. His addition comes amid growing bipartisan support for crypto legislation on Capitol Hill that has been stifled, among some Democrats recently, by the prevalence of crypto ventures backed by President Donald Trump.
  • Crypto David vs. Goliath consulting firm: Ethereum token platform Zora sued Deloitte to stop the audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services firm from calling one of its products “Zora AI.” Deloitte launched the platform last March, but Zora has been a playing client of Deloitte since 2022.
  • Bitcoin miners bounce back: Bitcoin miners were struggling earlier this year, but Bitdeer said this week that it minted 196 BTC in May, an 18% increase from April. Data from Farside Investors shows that four top Bitcoin miners—CleanSpark, MARA, Riot Platforms, and HIVE—minted more BTC in May than in April, as well.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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Crypto Clan Encrypts Keys Across The Globe

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Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

A surge in real-world assaults on cryptocurrency owners has spurred top figures to overhaul how they safeguard their assets. They’re no longer just guarding against hackers—they’re bracing for kidnappers and armed thieves.

Seed phrases once held on a single device have been broken up, encrypted and scattered across four continents to keep any one breach from spilling the whole stash.

Seed Phrases Scattered Around The Globe

According to reports, the family of Bitcoin advocate Didi Taihuttu has split its seed phrases across four continents. They used a method that scrambles and stores parts of their recovery words in steel plates and in encrypted online services.

Over the past eight months, they moved to this hybrid system. It means that even if attackers find one piece, they can’t crack the whole code.

Didi Taihuttu personally hammered and punched letters into a steel plate—one of several he uses to secure a fragment of the family’s Bitcoin seed phrase—in a decentralized storage network that spans four continents. Source: Didi Taihuttu/CNBC.

Minimal Funds On Mobile Wallets

Based on reports from CNBC, Taihuttu says he keeps only small amounts in a phone wallet. He told a reporter in Thailand, “Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can’t give them more than what’s on my phone wallet — and that’s not much.”

A smarter move, perhaps, since having little on hand can slow down kidnappers who demand you unlock your main stash.

Didi, Romaine and their three daughters mostly live off the grid, handling their crypto through decentralized exchanges, automated trading bots, and a cold-storage network spread around the world. Source: Didi Taihuttu/CNBC.

High-Profile Attacks Fuel Security Overhauls

Moroccan police have arrested a suspect accused of targeting crypto executives. In France, the father of a crypto millionaire suffered a brutal beating. And in New York, a tourist was held for over two weeks and tortured for access to his Bitcoin.

These incidents have raised fears across the industry. Some estimates say that up to 65% of Taihuttu’s holdings now sit in cold storage across different continents.

BTC is currently trading at $106,303. Chart: TradingView

Turning To Professional Security

In May, private security firms such as Infinite Risks International saw a sharp jump in demand from crypto professionals seeking round-the-clock protection. Bodyguards and safe houses are no longer a luxury. They are becoming a necessity.

Many industry insiders now carry panic buttons and use anonymous phones to keep their movements secret.

Keeping Funds Outside Central Vaults

The Taihuttu family has also pulled away from big vault services and bank-like custodians. They say they prefer full control over their assets.

According to Taihuttu, putting your coins into a company’s vault can backfire if that firm runs into trouble. Instead, they rely on a mix of cold storage, multi-signature wallets, and decentralized exchanges for trading and daily spending.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.



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Public Keys: Gemini Twinning Circle, Strategy’s ‘Preferred’ Bitcoin Play

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In brief

  • Gemini is twinning with Circle, as the exchange confirms it’s filed to go public.
  • Analysts say investors may want to wait a few months to see how CRCL settles before buying shares.
  • Strategy has a new, high-yield preferred stock offering to fuel its Bitcoin buys. But there’s a catch.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week: Gemini makes its own IPO move after Circle’s explosive debut (and continued rise Friday), while Strategy boosts its Bitcoin buying power.

Twinsies!

Crypto exchange Gemini confirmed that it has filed to go public, within 24 hours of USDC issuer Circle making its euphoric debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Rumors started making the rounds in February and March that Gemini, which has been operating since 2015, wanted to go public.

The firm was one of the earliest crypto companies to secure a New York BitLicense the same year it launched and has long marketed itself as a compliant, secure bridge between traditional finance and digital assets.

Gemini offers spot trading, staking, and custodial services. For a few years, the firm also offered the Gemini Dollar, or GUSD, as a so-called “regulated stablecoin.”



The company hasn’t officially killed off its stablecoin. Rather, it’s been moth balled since the Gemini Earn program had to be shut down in 2022. In the past year, the GUSD market capitalization has gone from $140 million to $51 million, according to CoinGecko data.

Analysts had been predicting that more crypto IPO hopefuls might feel ready to pull the trigger thanks to none other than…

Circle’s debut

Odds are most readers have seen that investors went wild for Circle’s New York Stock Exchange debut, pushing the price to three times and then four times its IPO price in the first two trading days.

There’s enough investor frenzy to keep driving the price higher. But there’s a handful of analysts saying that’s why you shouldn’t buy the CRCL right now.

Dom Kwok, co-founder of the Web3 development tutoring app EasyA, said on X that retail investors should be wary of buying up CRCL shares after seeing its first-day performance. That’s because Wall Street analysts tend to price in an initial pop.

“Wait 90-180 days after IPO to invest,” he wrote, “not just to allow for price discovery, but because that’s typically when the lockup period ends.”

Lockup periods stop early investors and insiders from dumping their shares for a set amount of time after a security becomes available to the public.

Case in point:  A “first 20” former Circle employee used a Disney GIF to complain on X that he was having to go through Robinhood to try to get a piece of the IPO.

Two hours later, he confessed that he exercised his options and sold in secondaries. Then taunted his former colleagues because while they’re still stuck in the aforementioned lockup period, he’s sitting on 57 very liquid shares.

Think he’s sold yet?

Striding towards 10% yield, maybe

Ok folks, we’ve hit “fourth gear” in what Bitcoin scion Michael Saylor calls Strategy’s “Bitcoin Engine.”

The prodigal Bitcoin treasury company has upsized its offering of perpetual Stride preferred stock, or STRD, to $1 billion. The shares will pay a yummy 10% yield.

“It’s our high-yield credit instrument,” Saylor said in a video on X earlier this week. “Compared to STRK or STRF, it should be a higher-yielding preferred instrument.”

Keep in mind, this is the company’s third preferred stock offering in six months after STRK and STRF. Strategy, which trades on the Nasdaq under the MSTR ticker, clearly wants to very urgently buy more Bitcoin.

And it’s worth noting that STRD is subordinated to STRK and STRF, meaning that it carries more risk for investors. In very simple terms, that means if Strategy were to go bankrupt, STRD holders would get paid after the company’s creditors and STRK and STRF holders.

And the STRD 10% annual dividends, which will be paid quarterly, are non-cumulative and discretionary. That means if STRD investors don’t get an IOU if Strategy skips a dividend payment.

Other keys

  • Miners are minted: Nothing like Bitcoin bouncing back and record-high May production to boost miner stocks. MARA Holdings has climbed 7.2%, Riot Platforms has gained 11.4%, and HIVE Digital has picked up 10% in the past day.
  • Circle IPO = bullish for Ethereum: Analysts told Decrypt that because Circle’s flagship USDC is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, the IPO craze is incredibly bullish for the network. “As USDC usage proliferates, that will continue to translate into more liquidity for DeFi and excitement for developers to build on Ethereum,” Bitwise Senior Investment Strategist Juan Leon told reporter André Beganski.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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How To Find Stonesword Keys
Game Reviews

How To Find Stonesword Keys

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Screenshot: FromSoftware / Billy Givens / Kotaku

Clearing bosses on the map in Elden Ring Nightreign is generally the best way to level up quickly, so you’ll want to prioritize anything that grants you access to these big baddies. One great way to do this is to find Stonesword Keys, which can open gaols found around Limveld that will let you tackle a (usually) simple boss for a huge chunk of runes.

The Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History

Unfortunately, Stonesword Keys can be difficult to come by. If you’re wanting to track some of these items down more often, though, all hope is not lost.

Where to find Stonesword Keys in Elden Ring Nightreign

Given the random nature of every run in Nightreign, there aren’t many spots on the map that can guarantee a specific piece of loot. This obviously applies to Stonesword Keys as well, meaning your chances of grabbing one in an expedition can feel like a stroke of luck.

However, the good news is that there are a few locations you can aim for that have a higher drop rate for this coveted item. We’re not talking a 100-percent drop rate here, but they drop frequently enough from these points of interest to be worth visiting.

Screenshot: FromSoftware / Billy Givens / Kotaku

Here are some good locations to find Stonesword Keys:

  • Small Castles: There are usually a few small castles on the map that can be cleared easily. They’ll sometimes have an Abductor Virgin enemy on the base level, but will more often have a quick and simple fight against a knight boss at the top. Behind the boss will be a chest that you can open, which has a good chance of containing a Stonesword Key.
  • Medium Castles: You’ll also sometimes find medium-sized castles that are gated off and require you to enter via the sewers at the very bottom of the structure. Here, you can make your way up the wooden stairs inside to find a room halfway up containing a group of enemies. A side room here has a chest that may contain a Stonesword Key.
  • Ruined Cathedrals: Not to be confused with the small cathedrals where you find flask upgrades, ruined cathedrals are large, broken structures that are hard to miss. You’ll encounter basic enemies here, as well as a boss located either near the altar or by dropping down a hole in the center. Bosses aside, just defeat any nearby foes and check behind the altar in the center of the cathedral for a chest that has a solid chance of dropping a Stonesword Key for you.

Now that you know how to track down some extra Stonesword Keys, get out there and beat some ass at the gaols. Just don’t be surprised if one day you open up a gaol and get a whole lot more than you bargained for…ut that’s a discussion for another day!

Elden Ring: Nightreign is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.



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Streamers at risk as AI can guess passwords based on the sound of keys being pressed

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Streamers may be at risk after a study revealed that AI can guess passwords based on the sound of what keys are being pressed.

Whether streamers are broadcasting to dozens of people or hundreds of thousands, the possibility of accidentally displaying sensitive information on stream is always there.

You might not have to show the information to risk having your passwords or bank info stolen by somebody watching your stream, however, according to a new study.

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It has been revealed that AI can accurately be used to guess passwords based on the sound of what keys are being pressed by the user.

AI can guess passwords based on sound

According to the research, published as part of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, bad actors can use AI on video conferencing tools like Zoom or while listening to a Twitch stream.

The study says researchers pressed 36 keys on a MacBook Pro, including all the letters and numbers, 25 times in a row with different fingers and varying pressure. The sounds were recorded over a Zoom call and on a smartphone placed a short distance from the keyboard.

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Researchers then fed the recordings into AI, which learned how to recognize the sound of each key pressed on the computer. It’s unclear what model they used, however.

TwitchTwitch viewers can gift other users subscriptions to their favorite streamers’ channels – and now, Hype Trains can make them cheaper.

Results of the study revealed that the system could assign the correct key to a sound 95% of the time when the recording was made over a phone call, and 93% when it was made over Zoom.

There are ways to get around any potential AI detection, however, like using the shift key to capitalize letters, opting for biometric passwords like a MacBook’s fingerprint scanner, and using two-step authentication.

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This comes just weeks after a study went viral showing that the most “emotionally triggering” text message was just a single letter.



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Public Keys: GameStop Bitcoin Flop, BlackRock ETF Euphoria and Metaplanet’s Sprint

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In brief

  • GameStop saw its stock flop after spending more than half a billion on BTC.
  • The iShares Bitcoin Trust just booked its best month on record, but concerns about custodian diversification remain.
  • MetaPlanet is sprinting towards its 2025 goal to have 10,000 Bitcoin. But it’s doing it in a much riskier way than most other Bitcoin treasury companies.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week: GameStop sinks after buying a boatload of Bitcoin, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF continues flying high, and Metaplanet makes a potentially risky sprint to amass a lot of BTC very quickly.

GameStop Bitcoin flop

GameStop found out this week that sinking half a billion dollars into Bitcoin isn’t universally flattering for share prices.

The video game retailer spent $512 million on Bitcoin earlier this week, and the GME share price climbed as high as $35.78 the morning the BTC buy was announced. But it fell sharply the same day and still hasn’t recovered.

GME closed Friday at $29.80—nearly 17% lower than that short-lived Wednesday peak. Now, don’t get us wrong: The revival of Trump tariff trouble has dealt a blow to crypto assets and securities alike.

But GME was deep into its post-Bitcoin buy slide before an appeals court ruled that Trump’s tariff policies would remain in place.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter—the only Wall Streeter who still officially covers GME—told Barron’s that he’s not sold on GameStop being an attractive buy because of its Bitcoin ambitions.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that [GameStop] would be a ‘better’ steward of Bitcoin holdings,” he said.



Pachter pointed out that the retailer is in no position to weather having a large portion of its treasury sitting in a volatile asset. For example, if Bitcoin were to drop 30% to about $70,000—a price it’s seen as recently as October—that would leave GME with an unrealized loss equal to its past four quarters of operating income.

Interestingly, in April, Strive CEO Matt Cole highlighted purported infighting at GameStop over its Bitcoin strategy. But his advice that the company buy as much Bitcoin as it can, as quickly as possible, hasn’t aged particularly well.

IBIT euphoria

The BlackRock Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, pulled in more than $6.22 billion in net deposits this month to make this its best month on record—and that’s before the closing bell has rung on the last trading day in May.

It helps, of course, that Bitcoin flirted with and then set a few new all-time high price marks.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pointed out on X that it’s not a typical trajectory for a newly launched fund.

“IBIT on fire lately, now has $72B in assets which ranks it 23rd overall, absolutely bonkers for a one-year-old,” he wrote.

The fund has been so dominant that it’s accounted for 90% of all spot Bitcoin ETF flows in the past month.

As a group, the twelve ETFs account for more than 6% of the circulating 19.8 million Bitcoin supply. But at $70.2 billion, IBIT accounts for 55% of the total $126 billion worth of assets under management by the issuers.

But the milestone underscores what critics like Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) say is a unique risk: There are only four different custodians used by the issuers to hold the Bitcoin that backs ETF shares.

“This concern is amplified by the fact that none of the custodians are banks,” he wrote in a statement in February. At the time, he cited the SEC’s recently rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121.

Despite the rule being rescinded, there hasn’t been much change in the lineup.

Many of the issuers—including BlackRock, Grayscale, WisdomTree, Franklin Templeton, and Valkyrie—use Coinbase Custody. The Invesco and Galaxy fund uses Galaxy as its custodian, but some of that BTC gets routed to Coinbase as a sub-custodian.

BlackRock added Anchorage Digital as an additional custodian for its IBIT and ETHA funds in April. Fidelity self-custodies the BTC backing shares of its Fidelity Bitcoin Trust, or FBTC, which is the next-largest fund.

Metaplanet sprints—but at what cost?

Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet is running, not walking, towards its goal of acquiring 10,000 BTC by the end of the year. That’s over $1 billion worth at the current price.

With another buy earlier this week, Metaplanet now holds 7,800 Bitcoin.

But that has, very literally, come at a cost to the company: Its debt-to-equity ratio has climbed to 8.43, according to Reuters. For context, the same ratio for Strategy—the company it’s trying to emulate—was 0.24 as of March 2025.

There aren’t many comparisons we could make that would leave Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin juggernaut looking conservative after acquiring some $60 billion worth of BTC, but this is one of them.

If Metaplanet’s game plan works out, then it could amplify returns for investors. But if Bitcoin tanks, then it could blow up spectacularly.

Other Keys

  • New HQ for COIN: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie welcomed crypto exchange Coinbase back to the city. The crypto exchange is moving into Mission Rock after closing its headquarters four years ago because of a shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. That shift was pricey. The company revealed in a shareholder letter that it paid $25 million to exit its lease early.
  • Table stakes: The SEC staff says that staking crypto to earn rewards—either directly or through a third-party custodian or protocol—does not constitute a securities offering. But as welcome as that news may be, it’s worth noting the new guidance hasn’t yet been enshrined in SEC rules. Translation: Don’t go looking for your BlackRock Ethereum Trust, or ETHA, shares to start paying staking rewards any time soon.
  • Olé for alts: Newly public trading platform eToro made a dozen crypto assets available for trading, including XRP, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu. The company trades under the ETOR ticker on the Nasdaq. The company made its debut at $69.99 per share—a big bump from its IPO price of $52—but has since retraced to $59.20 by Friday’s close.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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Get A Trio Of Microsoft License Keys For As Low As $10 This Weekend
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Get A Trio Of Microsoft License Keys For As Low As $10 This Weekend

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PC users can save big on a handful of Microsoft lifetime licenses throughout Memorial Day weekend. StackSocial has deals on pricey productivity apps, including Microsoft Visio Professional 2021 and Project Professional 2021, which can be purchased for $12 each with promo code WINDOWS. The promo code also works with Windows 11 Home. If you are planning on building a computer in the near future, StackSocial’s Windows license deal lets you get the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system for just $10. The promo code will only work until May 27.

StackSocial is a Microsoft Verified Partner, so you can be sure that you are getting legitimate licenses. Project and Windows 11 license keys can be activated within 30 days, but your copy of Visio must be redeemed within seven days.

All three offers are discounted to $15 without the promo code. Once you enter promo code WINDOWS after adding the deals to your cart, the price will drop to $10. However, Visio and Project each have a $2 “handling fee,” so you’ll ultimately pay $12/each for those two licenses. Windows 11 Home isn’t subject to a handling fee.

$12 with promo code WINDOWS

Microsoft Project is a project management app similar to tools like Asana or Trello. It includes pre-built sample projects, tools for visualizing schedule timelines, and even a built-in timesheet submission form, among many other features.

$12 with promo code WINDOWS

Microsoft Visio is a brainstorming and diagramming software used to create charts, graphs, and other data visualizations like architectural layouts. It comes with dozens of templates for flowcharts, org charts, floor plans, and more, and it can import data from other Microsoft programs like Excel, Exchange, and Entra ID to automatically create charts and diagrams.

Note: A version of Visio is included with Microsoft 365; Project is not part of Microsoft’s subscription productivity suite.

More Microsoft License Deals

Beyond those three deals, StackSocial is offering steep discounts on Microsoft Office 2019, Visual Studio Professional 2022, and a few other licenses.

All of the deals listed below are for lifetime licenses. We’ve noted the activation window for each one after the price. The prices listed below include handling fees (if applicable).



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Public Keys: Coinbase Hack Fallout, MSTR Legal Strife and Stable-Curious Wall Street

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In brief

  • Coinbase released a few more worrying details about the data breach it reported last week.
  • Strategy got hit with a class action lawsuit, then launched a “crown jewel” of a $2.1 billion stock offering.
  • A trio of banks are mulling a stablecoin contender, but it would be used on a permissioned network.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week:

Worrying details from Coinbase

The data breach Coinbase told users and investors about last week has gotten a little more worrying.

It’s not that more data has been stolen. But the company filed a disclosure with the Maine Attorney General that included a few key details that were missing from its SEC filing and blog post about the exploit.

The breach occurred on December 26, 2024, and wasn’t discovered until May 11, 2025. That means the company went 136 days without knowing customer data had been compromised. The only spot on Coinbase’s 8-K filing that mentions December is the boilerplate about forward looking statements.



In its blog post, Coinbase described the number of users impacted as “less than 1%” of its monthly transacting users—leaving readers to do the math on their own. But it was more explicit in the Maine filing, saying 69,461 users had data leaked.

Don’t get us wrong. The company’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq under the COIN ticker, has shaken off the post-disclosure investor jitters. It had climbed to $271.95 by yesterday’s close. That’s the highest the price has been since February and was likely spurred along by Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high.

But, uh, is there anything else we should know about that data breach? Asking for about 70,000 friends. With the personal details, including home addresses, of potentially high-net-worth individuals in the wind, TechCrunch and Arrington Capital Founder Michael Arrington is concerned lives could be at risk.

Run that ‘Crown Jewel’ fast

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor and his company face a new class action lawsuit from investors who allege they were misled about the risks of the company’s aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy.

In particular, the plaintiffs take issue with Strategy saying in its latest earnings report that ““[w]e may not be able to regain profitability in future periods, particularly if we incur significant unrealized losses related to our digital assets.”

Filed in a Virginia federal court, the suit claims MicroStrategy downplayed the volatility of Bitcoin, leading to significant investor losses.

But you know the Strategy playbook by now: Bitcoin buying will continue until prices improve. Days later, the company unveiled a “crown jewel” offering of $2.1 billion worth of Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock (STRF).

Investors seem dubious of this latest offering, though. In the same week that Bitcoin twice set a new all-time high, MSTR shares are ending it 7% lower than they were last Friday.

Stable contenders

Recent progress on the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill in D.C. has Wall Street stalwarts JPMorgan, Citi, and Wells Fargo considering a partnership to create their own dollar-pegged stablecoin, according to a report earlier this week from The Wall Street Journal.

It’s potentially big if true, but unclear just how much market share the three banks could nab from the $248 billion worth of stables already in circulation, according to CoinGecko data.

There’s one detail that gives us pause: The banks are exploring tokenized deposit products—all good so far—and permissioned blockchains. That’s where a lot of big institutions start to lose on-chain credibility. (“Permissioned” is techno-speak for “private,” which makes these kinds of networks really just blockchains in name only.)

Compliance teams are still wary of conducting business on a public network. But when you take away the permissionless part, then projects start to look like the same old systems with buzzy new technology that makes them faster and cheaper.

But going the fully permissionless route isn’t a slam dunk, either. PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin on none other than Ethereum in August 2023. It’s currently the 110th largest stablecoin with a $880 million market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

And it drew the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which subpoenaed the company about the stablecoin in November 2023. It recently called off an investigation into PYUSD with no action taken.

It’s gotta be said, though, that fintech payments platform PayPal doesn’t have quite the same gravitas as three Wall Street institutions. If D.C. waves the green flag, things could get interesting.

Other Keys

  • Mocking crypto Batman: A bad actor who’s believed to be linked to the Coinbase data breach has been mocking on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. “L bozo,” the hacker wrote Wednesday evening through an Ethereum transaction using the blockchain’s input data message feature. The message was followed by a link to a YouTube meme video showing NBA legend James Worthy smoking a cigar. Gotham needs justice.
  • New base unit, who dis? Square CEO and laser-eyed Bitcoin maxi Jack Dorsey has joined the chorus of developers saying that Bitcoin’s base unit should be changed from “satoshis” to “Bitcoins.” This would render sayings like “Stacking sats” meaningless. A Bitcoin is made up of 100,000,000 satoshis, or “sats,” named after the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

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