News & Research

The three major U.S. stock indices opened higher. The S&P 500 is up 0.04%, the Nasdaq Composite has gained 0.07%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 0.03%.

aPriori, an on-chain trading infrastructure startup founded by former employees of crypto market maker Jump Trading, has raised $20 million, CoinDesk reported. The funding round included participation from Pantera Capital, HashKey Capital, Primitive Ventures, IMC Trading, GEM, Gate Labs, Ambush Capital, and Big Brain Collective. aPriori is developing a solution that applies algorithmic high-frequency trading (HFT) techniques to decentralized finance. The company also operates a liquid staking platform and an AI-based decentralized exchange, Swapr. The new capital will be used for product expansion, hiring, and strengthening partnerships.

U.S. initial jobless claims for last week totaled 229,000, falling below the forecast of 231,000.

Nasdaq-listed AirNet Technology (ANTE) announced it has raised $180 million through a registered direct offering, with the entire amount paid in cryptocurrency. The funds were delivered as 819.07 BTC and 19,928.91 ETH. AirNet CEO Dan Shao stated that the fundraising marks a strategic shift for the company. He added that AirNet plans to leverage a new team of experts to formulate a comprehensive development strategy.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that second-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 3.3%, surpassing the market forecast of 3.0%. U.S. GDP growth figures are released in three estimates: advance, preliminary, and final. Today's announcement is the preliminary estimate.

Nasdaq-listed Sharplink Gaming (SBET), a strategic investor in Ethereum (ETH), argued in a post on its official X account that the growth of stablecoins is a bullish signal for the cryptocurrency. The company stated that stablecoins represent one of the clearest use cases for blockchain and will bring about the largest financial revolution. With more than half of the current stablecoin supply based on Ethereum, Sharplink Gaming reasoned that an expanding stablecoin market directly translates to increased demand for Ethereum's block space.

Stablecoin infrastructure developer M0 announced it has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital. Other participants in the round included Endeavor Catalyst, Pantera Capital, and Bain Capital. The deal consists of both equity and a tranche of tokens subject to a lock-up period. M0, which is developing a network to ensure interoperability and liquidity among stablecoin issuers, has now secured a total of around $100 million in funding.

Tether has announced on its official blog that it now supports native USDT transfers on the Bitcoin network. The stablecoin will be integrated with RGB, a protocol for the Bitcoin ecosystem, allowing users to hold, transfer, and make payments with USDT directly from their Bitcoin wallets.

The U.S. stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood has listed TON.

Rain, a stablecoin-based payment platform, announced it has raised $58 million in a Series B funding round led by Sapphire Ventures. Other participants in the round included Dragonfly Capital, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, and Lightspeed. Rain is reportedly developing a stablecoin-based card issuance solution, though the specific use of the new capital was not disclosed.