The weekly Early Riders newsletter on Bitcoin, venture, and digital asset markets.
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Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, Japan's 10-year touched 3% for the first time since 1996, and US spot bitcoin ETFs took in $3.52 billion in their strongest month of 2026.
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BitGo buys NYDIG’s institutional trading desk for $42.5m, Warsh opens his first Jackson Hole as Fed chair, and Nvidia prints $96.2 billion while bidding a reported $12.9 billion for Hugging Face.
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Stripe declares the singularity and buys OpenRouter, Bessent eyes the Treasury General Account to fund buybacks, and Nvidia discusses a $30B+ Perplexity round.
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Bitcoin gained ~1.5% this week to a market capitalization of $1.30T.
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Bitcoin gained ~3% this week to a market capitalization of $1.29T.
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Bitcoin gained ~1% this week to a market capitalization of $1.26T.
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Bitcoin gained 3% this week to a market capitalization of $1.24T.
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Bitcoin was down 8.6% this week to a market capitalization of $1.20T
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Bitcoin was down (2.1%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.30T
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Bitcoin was up 4.9% this week to a market capitalization of $1.33T
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Bitcoin was down (10.9%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.27T
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Bitcoin was down (7.2%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.45T
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Bitcoin was down (1.7%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.54T
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Bitcoin was down (3.8%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.57T
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Bitcoin was up 2.8% this week to a market capitalization of $1.62T.
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Bitcoin was up ~1% this week to a market capitalization of $1.57T.
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Bitcoin was up 2.6% this week to a market capitalization of $1.56T.
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Bitcoin was up 7.1% this week to a market capitalization of $1.52T.
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Bitcoin was up 6.1% this week to a market capitalization of $1.43T.
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Bitcoin was up 0.5% this week to a market capitalization of $1.35T.
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Bitcoin was down (3.3%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.33T.
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Bitcoin was down (4.0%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.38T.
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Bitcoin was up 6.2% this week to a market capitalization of $1.43T.
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Bitcoin was up 1.2% this week to a market capitalization of $1.34T.
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Bitcoin was down (2%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.35T.
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Bitcoin was down (1%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.38T.
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Bitcoin was down (8%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.42T.
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Bitcoin was down (12%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.56T.
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Bitcoin was down (6.6%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.77T.
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Bitcoin rebounded 4.5% on the week to a market capitalization of $1.90T.
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Bitcoin remained mostly flat this week at a market capitalization of $1.81T.
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Bitcoin traded up nearly 4% on the week, starting the New Year at a market capitalization of $1.82T.
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Bitcoin remained mostly flat this week at a market capitalization of $1.75T.
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Bitcoin dropped 1.3% this week, to a market capitalization of $1.76T.
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Bitcoin remained mostly flat on the week, at a market capitalization of $1.78T.
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Bitcoin dipped nearly 4% on the week, to a market capitalization of $1.76T.
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Michael, Brian, and Liam discuss the latest in capital formation, market structure, and latest deals on this week's podcast .
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Kraken raised $800M at a ~$20B valuation from Citadel, Jane Street, DRW, Tribe Capital, and more. The firm also confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO. An Abu Dhabi backed fund tripled its bitcoin bet in the months before the crash. In a rare move, a spokesperson mentioned they see it as a store of value similar to gold, and expect both bitcoin and gold to be both short and long term positions. Ledn received a strategic investment from Tether to scale bitcoin-backed credit and institutional services. Metaplanet approved a ¥21.25B (~$140M) Class B preferred raise with a 4.9% dividend.
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Cash App enabled “Pay with Bitcoin,” letting users spend BTC directly from the app at participating merchants across their 4m business customer base allowing merchants to auto convert revenue into bitcoin or dollars. Harvard tripled its bitcoin position to $448m as of September 30th, while doubling its gold position. Bitcoin is now the largest publicly known position in the endowment. Emory doubled its bitcoin holdings to over $50m as of September 30th and added a gold holding as well. Al Warda disclosed a bitcoin position worth over $500m as of September 30th. The investment firm is managed by the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund.
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Fidelity enabled users to withdraw or sending digital assets from their wallets, more than 2 years after enabling buy/sell functionality. Fidelity also received approval for UK Bitcoin ETP. PwC’s global survey found 55% of hedge funds invested in crypto, with the asset class making up 7% of their portfolios on average. JPMorgan projected a potential $170,000 bitcoin price in the next 6–12 months in a client note.
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MicroStrategy posted its Q3 earnings presentation, which detailed plans for the company to enter markets in Europe and Canada with its preferred financial instruments. ARK Labs launched the Arkade public beta, a Bitcoin Layer-2 focused on instant payments and off-chain transactions. Ledn posted a record Q3, citing growth in BTC-backed credit and institutional services.
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Early Riders backed Aureo with $1.1M to scale secure Bitcoin custody and infrastructure across Latin America. JPMorgan planned to let institutional clients borrow against bitcoin and ether holdings via a third-party custody model by late 2025. Blackrock bitcoin ETF holdings have increased driven by holders moving their ownership directly into the ETF in kind. River launched Supercharged Recurring Buys, adding DCA automation with increased purchasing on down bitcoin days.
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Bull Bitcoin launched Bull Wallet, a privacy-first Bitcoin wallet now available globally on iOS with built-in self-custody tooling. Kraken acquired Small Exchange, a CFTC-licensed Designated Contract Market from IG Group for $100 million. Citi aimed to launch crypto custody in 2026 and explored stablecoin initiatives to serve institutional clients. Coinbase invested in CoinDCX marking a strategic investment into an exchange as the company deepens its focus on the India and the Middle East markets. Bitcoin for Signal launched a campaign urging Signal to integrate private bitcoin payments via Cashu ecash, enabling the transfer of ecash tokens inside the popular messaging app.
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Square introduced “Square Bitcoin,” consolidating merchant and consumer bitcoin tools into a single, integrated experience, with plans to allow merchants to accept bitcoin as payment nationwide on November 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped digital asset restrictions for wealth clients, broadening access across its platform, and officially recommends bitcoin allocation to clients. BlackRock’s iBIT approached $100B in AUM, becoming BlackRock’s most profitable ETF to date, now holding over 800,000 BTC. Coinbase pursued an OCC federal charter, aiming to unify crypto and TradFi products under a national framework.
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iShares vaulted to $38B in bitcoin options open interest and into the top-20 U.S. ETFs by AUM, as flows accelerated. Binance packaged trading, custody, and compliance into a turnkey institutional stack and FalconX debuted 24/7 OTC options in BTC, ETH, SOL, and HYPE. On the credit side, Coinbase exceeded $1B in bitcoin-backed loans on an alternative blockchain, while Lava announced a $17m raise. Tether added ~$1B of BTC to reserves, Metaplanet acquired 5,288 BTC, and Strategy lifted holdings to 640,031 BTC.
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Vanguard weighed opening brokerage access to bitcoin and digital asset ETFs, Morgan Stanley moved to let E*TRADE clients trade bitcoin via its newly backed zerohash, and Kraken explored a strategic investor ahead of a planned IPO. On the issuer side, Tether sought a roughly $500B valuation and Circle evaluated reversible stablecoin transactions, while Strive–Semler Scientific announced an all-stock merger that the market initially faded. In Asia, a Naver/Upbit stock-swap would tuck Korea’s largest exchange under a tech-finance giant. Policy and surveillance stayed active with a BPI nation-state adoption report and SEC outreach on unusual trading around corporate crypto purchases.
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Early Riders launched The Stables accelerator; Bullish secured New York licensure for spot and custody; and the SEC approved generic spot-commodity ETP standards and initiated Project Crypto to reduce legal uncertainty for token issuance and custody. Corporate and public-market activity remained brisk, BitGo reported $4.2B in 1H25 revenue, Strategy grew to 638,985 BTC, Metaplanet added subsidiaries in Tokyo and Miami, and GD Culture set up to acquire 7,500 BTC. With Capital Group’s Bitcoin-related equity exposure now ~$6B and Africa Bitcoin Corporation listing to raise $210M in reserves, the institutional stack keeps thickening.
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Nasdaq invested $50M into Gemini right before the crypto exchange ended up ~15% on its debut, while Cantor Fitzgerald introduced a five-year, gold-protected bitcoin fund and Sora Ventures launched a $1B treasury vehicle for Asia. Balance-sheet accumulation continued with Strategy, Metaplanet, and Tether’s USA₮ announcement alongside disclosure of 100,521 BTC in corporate holdings. On the legislative front, there were mixed signals, with a potential expansion of the Patriot act potentially marking self-custody as suspicious activity, while the senate banking committee pushed to protect noncustodial developers and tools.
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Strategy was not added to the S&P 500, despite qualifying for the index on the initial change in weighting. The corporate acquisitions continued as Strategy, Figma, Metaplanet, Treasury, and CIMG all grew their bitcoin holdings, among others. On the institutional front, U.S. Bancorp allowed resumed institutional bitcoin custody services after putting the offering on hold in 2022. American Bitcoin completed its merger with Gryphon Mining Digital, as executive chairman Eric Trump defined its mission as "a race to accumulate the most bitcoin," which seemingly went under the radar despite the Trump family and close associates’ consensus view that acquiring more bitcoin is a worthwhile endeavor.
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Over the past week, the regulators paved a way for foreign exchanges to operate in US markets, driving more liquidity and competition domestically. Japan appears to be moving towards more friendly crypto tax laws, including a 20% flat tax rather than punitive 55% capital gains taxes, and progressing toward a Bitcoin ETF filing for the country. Meanwhile, both existing and net new Bitcoin treasury companies continued with their aggressive acquisition strategies, as well as planned listings.
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Sovereigns are testing acquisition and access frameworks, including Philippines proposal to accumulate 10,000 BTC and Brazil's upcoming hearing on a $19B reserve, pointing to prior adoption of competing nations and plans for legislative adoption by others. Bitcoin treasury companies, government pension funds, and banks all continue to ramp up their Bitcoin exposure. At the same time, payments infrastructure continued to develop with international payments through the Lightning Network, as BitBit facilitated user tipping through X.
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Block introduced the Proto Rig (air-cooled efficiency as low as 14.1 J/TH; rack density up to 9.4 kW/ft²) with swappable hashboards and on-rack service. Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund grew their Bitcoin exposure, as Brevan Howard almost doubled its $2.3B IBIT position at Q2 end. On the public markets front, Bullish listed on the NYSE, over $1B while Coinbase completed their $2.9B acquisition of Deribit, and Nakamoto completed their merger with KindlyMD. On the policy front, Treasury kept the door open to acquiring Bitcoin, while the Federal Reserve limited ended its review of digital asset related banking activities.
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University endowments and pensions moved further into Bitcoin, with Harvard disclosing a $116.7 million IBIT position, Brown reporting an initial $4.9 million allocation, and Michigan’s state fund tripling its spot ETF holdings. The corporate and capital-markets pipeline stayed active as Bullish filed for an IPO, Block reported higher income on growing Bitcoin revenue, and Metaplanet raised $3.7 billion via preferred equity. On the policy front, the White House cleared a path for Bitcoin in 401(k)s and barred debanking, while Dubai approved the first retail Bitcoin options license and Indonesia evaluated strategic reserve diversification.
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The White House Digital Asset Working Group shared its report on how it plans to usher in the golden age of 'crypto', largely leaving out any mention of Bitcoin outside of reiterating earlier Presidential executive orders. The SEC’s in-kind creations/redemptions for crypto ETPs and a 10× expansion of IBIT option contract size lowered frictions and deepened liquidity, even as price chopped. Strategy raised $2.5B for its new preferred equity offering, while Marathon and Twenty One raised additional capital for the purposes of acquiring more Bitcoin, as Kraken is the latest digital asset firm planning to go public.
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The capital markets have embraced Bitcoin and digital assets with open arms: Block was added to the S&P 500, Strategy issued the largest preferred IPO of the decade, and Bitgo confidentially filed to go public. Meanwhile, Galaxy executed one of the largest OTC desk sales of Bitcoin ever, and the price barely budged.
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The week’s signals clustered around one theme: convergence. Retail Bitcoin interest appeared to pick up as evidenced by Coinbase jumping on the app store rankings, as Charles Schwab announced their intents to enter the apace to compete directly with Coinbase. Meanwhile, institutional Bitcoin interest remained driven by Standard Charted turning on institutional trading, while Strategy has amassed almost 3% of Bitcoin's supply, and Adam Back launched his own SPAC. On the policy front, “Crypto Week” in the House delivered three significant bills and set up a potential executive order expanding 401(k) access. The demand stack, banks, brokerages, corporates, retail, and legislators, keeps growing even as new supply growth maintains its certainty.
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Bitcoin stamped fresh all-time highs this week, closing above $118K as demand from U.S. spot ETFs crossed the $140 billion threshold only 18 months post-launch, while new players joined the public corporate treasury play. Payments rails kept pace as SoFi confirmed it will route cross-border transfers through on-chain Bitcoin, and Jack Dorsey’s BitChat prototype showed Lightning invoices relaying entirely offline over Bluetooth mesh. Meanwhile, El Salvador’s president took a victory lap on his $400 million unrealized Bitcoin gain. In short, durable demand is broadening across retail, institutional, and nation-state channels just as supply growth halves every four years.
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Germany’s €1.4 trillion Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe approved bitcoin access for 50 million retail customers, while US-listed Figma quietly disclosed a $70m Bitcoin ETF position and board approval to add more. Fintechs followed suit: SoFi is routing cross-border payments through Bitcoin rails, and a Thiel-backed cohort is building Erebor Bank to serve AI and crypto customers. Corporates kept stacking as MicroStrategy added almost 5,000 more Bitcoin, while DDC Enterprise secured a $528m facility. However, policy winds were mixed: Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Act minus the de-minimis exemption, but Senator Lummis immediately re-floated a narrower Crypto Tax Clarity bill.
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The gang went to Washington this past week as many policy makers, operators, and investors converged in The District. Bitcoin Policy Institute put on a high quality event laying out everything from the first principles reasons for why Bitcoin protects private property and empowers human rights to the rationale for Bitcoin as a strategic asset for statecraft, and the best practices for Strategic Bitcoin Reserve implementations. This backdrop of coordinated thought-leadership and rule-making set the tone for a week in which corporate treasuries kept stacking sats and lawmakers fast-tracked bills that could soon make such moves routine.
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Bitcoin marched deeper into the mainstream this week, even as cyber-skirmishes flared, revealing a market that’s broadening and hardening at the same time. Texas joined the strategic-reserve club, Ukraine and Arizona queued up similar bills, and corporates from MicroStrategy to Semler added to their treasuries, while spot-ETF inflows notched their longest winning streak since launch. Meanwhile, leverage traders held a different view as futures premiums collapsed to a three-month low, hinting at traders tamping down risk just as hacker collective Predatory Sparrow torched $90 million at Iran’s Nobitex and knocked Bank Sepah offline.
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Coinbase’s new Bitcoin-back card and pending U.S. perpetual futures put everyday spending and pro-grade derivatives under one roof, while Washington’s CLARITY Act inched forward to referee SEC-CFTC turf. Fresh data shows 30% of circulating bitcoin now sits with just 216 entities, a reminder that custody is increasingly concentrated in institutional hands.
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Bitcoin just graduated from speculative asset to blue-chip collateral—JPMorgan is now lending against BlackRock’s IBIT shares while Russia launches Bitcoin bonds and new cash-settled BTC futures. Demand for stablecoins continues to rise, acting as a top of funnel and increased liquidity to BTC with Circle's very successful IPO, and increased corporate adoption. Read on for the details, plus MIC Part 4, Seoul and London’s regulatory pivots, and the latest capital raises stacking BTC at corporate scale.
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When state treasuries, Wall Street loan desks, and point-of-sale terminals all pivot to Bitcoin in the same week, you know the market’s center of gravity just moved. We map how the “multi-institution custody” standard is catching fire—just as Square, Amboss and Flash push Lightning into everyday commerce and unlock 9% yields on idle BTC. On the balance-sheet front, Trump Media, GameStop and Cantor Fitzgerald join Tether’s $2 billion mining bet in proving that corporates, miners and Wall-Street desks are all racing to out-stack one another. Meanwhile Texas and Pakistan are writing laws for state-level Bitcoin reserves, and the U.S. Labor Department has green-lit 401(k) exposure.
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Last week delivered a rare role-reversal. While equities and long-dated Treasuries buckled under fresh 50 %-tariff threats and another $3.8 trillion spending bill, hard assets caught a bid. Bitcoin sprinted to within a hair of $112k and gold logged its best five-day stretch of the year, reminding investors that the 21-million-cap asset can play a genuine risk-off role when deficits look unfixable. Add record-high Japanese bond yields, a boom in corporate BTC treasuries, and Texas green-lighting state-level reserves, and the signal is hard to miss: capital is seeking harder ground.
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Trade tensions eased, producer prices cooled, and bond yields blinked—fuel enough to catapult stocks into a broad-based rally that left the S&P up 5% and the Nasdaq up 7% as Bitcoin held steady. Meanwhile, retailers from burgers to bourbon switched on Lightning at the point of sale. The signal is clear: Bitcoin is migrating from narrative to ledger, from conference key-notes to cash registers.
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All eyes turn to Geneva this weekend, but Bitcoin has already priced in optimism. The digital asset jumped nearly 10% to just under $105K, shrugging off listless equity markets and a soft GDP print. As gold catches a bid and oil creeps higher on tariff-truce rumors, corporates keep stacking sats and regulators inch closer to clarity.
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Bitcoin ended the week around $95,539, fueled by a weaker dollar, with volatility muted even as macroeconomic data and policy noise increased across the board. Across the portfolio, Onramp saw exceptional customer growth, Acropolis reported a full pipeline, and Flash launched Version 2 of its web app.
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From billion-dollar treasury buys to bitcoin-backed credit markets and growing state-level interest, the signal remains clear: institutions are preparing for a different monetary future. Meanwhile, a weakening dollar, rising yields, and stalled trade negotiations continue to pressure legacy frameworks, clearing the path for a finite apolitical money.
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The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the seventh time in a year, to 2.25%, and gold added another 2.8% while US equities fell across a shortened trading week. Bitcoin closed roughly flat, holding its ground as the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.34%. Beneath the quiet price action, corporate and sovereign accumulation kept building, with Bitwise counting an 18% increase in public companies holding bitcoin in the first quarter.
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Tariffs remained the centerstage of focus over the past week, with volatile negotiating tactics translating to turbulent price action across most asset classes. Many investors were reminded of counterparty, issuer, credit, and supply chain risks over the past week, which do not apply to bitcoin.
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Tariffs dominated the headlines of the week, as the Trump administration blanketed other countries with "reciprocal" tariffs. Markets reacted very negatively to the tariffs due to inflation and recession concerns. Meanwhile, bitcoin sold off less than anticipated amid the broader market turbulence, setting the asset up for strength when the equity markets eventually bounce back, while hash rate reached new all time highs.
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