Weekly Recap: $247 To $1.90 In Three Hours

gm, Defiers!

LAPTOP opened on Base at noon UTC Wednesday, closed its first five minutes at $247.55, and traded at $1.90 three hours later. Hunter Biden's memecoin still finished the day near TRUMP's fully diluted valuation, with the larger market capitalization of the two.

The 42 biggest tokenized equities turned over $1.01 billion across the Labor Day weekend with U.S. stock markets shut, $572.8 million of it on Robinhood Chain. Pump.fun then opened token launches to 93 quote assets, among them tokenized Nvidia, Tesla and the S&P 500. Robinhood Chain's own gas revenue fell to $943,728 on Thursday from $5.44 million eight days earlier, with transaction counts flat.

Senate Republicans posted revised CLARITY Act text on Sept. 10 that adds CFTC registration and Bank Secrecy Act obligations for trading protocols that are not decentralized. Cloture ripens Tuesday, sixty votes carry it, and the seven Senate Democrats who negotiated the bill for a year have not withdrawn the opposition statement they issued in July.

Nasdaq put $100 million into Kraken's parent at a $21 billion valuation and sold it surveillance technology in the same deal. Circle agreed to buy Singapore's Tazapay for $400 million in stock. Block applied for a national bank charter, and U.S. Bank issued its own dollar token on Stellar and moved money between two of its arms with it.

The Liquid attacker sent 3,400 BTC back to the federation wallet on Monday and kept 598.5. Blockstream said on Friday it will not pay to recover the rest.

Enjoy!

Top Stories This Week

Hunter Biden's LAPTOP Opened At $247 And Traded At $1.90 Three Hours Later

Hunter Biden confirmed on Sept. 7 that the token would deploy on Coinbase's Base network two days later, with a fifth of a one billion supply set aside for airdrops that include wallets that lost money on TRUMP, according to The Wall Street Journal. At least 14 copycat LAPTOP tokens appeared on four other networks within an hour of that report and traded $6.9 million between them. The real one opened at 12:00 UTC Wednesday, closed its first five minutes at $247.55 and changed hands at $1.90 three hours later. Both tokens carry a one billion supply, which left LAPTOP and TRUMP within reach of the same $2 billion fully diluted valuation, and LAPTOP's market capitalization the larger of the two. Lookonchain traced a 2.5 million-token team allocation to a Wintermute-tagged wallet credited with $2.08 million of LAPTOP sales; one trader reported nearly empty launch pools and a 98% drop in the opening minutes.

Robinhood Chain Set Volume Records And Took 83% Less In Fees

Robinhood Chain kept $943,728 in gas revenue on Sept. 10 against $5.44 million on Sept. 4, its lowest daily take since Aug. 29, while transaction counts held flat and decentralized exchange volume over the week rose 27%. The average transaction cost $0.077 in gas against $0.43 at the peak. Over Labor Day weekend the 42 largest tokenized equities turned over $1.01 billion with the stock market closed, roughly matching Friday's session, and $572.8 million of that ran on Robinhood Chain. Pump.fun then opened launches to 93 quote assets on Wednesday, among them tokenized Nvidia, Tesla and the S&P 500, and routed half the revenue from those pairs into the PUMP buyback-and-burn contract. Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev said stock tokens should not automatically require issuer consent, and acknowledged that holders get no voting rights, because the tokens are Jersey-issued debt securities that track the share price.

The CLARITY Act Got New Text Five Days Before Its Cloture Vote

Senate Republicans posted a substitute CLARITY Act text on Sept. 10 that adds CFTC registration and Bank Secrecy Act obligations for trading protocols that are not decentralized, limits the DeFi title to spot and cash digital commodity transactions, and clarifies what credit unions may do with digital assets. Cynthia Lummis released the draft. Cloture ripens Sept. 15, sixty votes carry the bill to the floor, and the seven Senate Democrats who have negotiated it for a year have not withdrawn the statement of opposition they issued in July. Tuesday is the first count.

Nasdaq Put $100 Million Into Kraken's Parent At A $21 Billion Valuation

Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, the company behind Kraken, at a $21 billion valuation according to Bloomberg, and Payward will adopt Nasdaq's surveillance technology across its trading venues. Two more deals landed inside the same 48 hours. Circle agreed to buy the Singapore payments company Tazapay for $400 million in stock, adding more than 60 banking and fintech partners and local payout rails across over 100 markets. And Block applied to the OCC for Builders Bank, an uninsured national bank that would custody bitcoin and stablecoins under direct federal supervision while taking no deposits and making no loans. The charter still requires OCC approval.

Liquid's Attacker Returned 3,400 Bitcoin And Kept 598. Blockstream Refused To Pay For The Rest

A transaction broadcast on Monday paid 3,400 BTC back to the Liquid federation wallet and 598.50 BTC to the attacker's own address, unconfirmed and flagged replaceable, with neither side publishing anything about how the split was reached. Liquid confirmed the return on Sept. 8 and brought transactions back with peg-outs disabled. On Friday Blockstream refused a ransom demand and said it will pursue lawful tracing if the outstanding coins stay out, which leaves 598.5 BTC — about $46 million at Friday's price — with whoever took them.

Other Stories

Consensys Software Inc. Splits In Two, Rebrands As MetaMask — the company behind the wallet keeps it and takes the MetaMask name, with Joe Lubin as chief executive, while Linea, Besu and the institutional infrastructure business move into a newly formed company that carries the Consensys name. Completion is expected by the end of 2026.

U.S. Bank Issues Its Own Stablecoin On Stellar — the bank moved value between its North American and European entities with USBDC, a dollar-backed token it issued on Stellar, in a pilot that tested minting, redemption, freezing and clawback. It has not said how much moved or what backs the token.

DBS and Citi Complete Weekend Dollar Payment on Swift Ledger — the Singapore-to-U.S. transfer took minutes on a shared ledger over a weekend, and Swift says final settlement still happens through existing banking systems.

Ethereum Foundation Sets 2029 Quantum Target and Narrows Hegotá Scope — FOCIL and Frame Transactions are the two must-ship proposals for the fork. A tapered issuance burn and a mandatory burn of execution rewards were declined, with the cluster saying issuance and reward policy belong in a broader ecosystem process.

Tether And Fasanara Seed A $400 Million Private Credit Fund — the evergreen fund opens with $400 million from the two sponsors and targets up to $3 billion from outside institutions. Fasanara manages the investments, Tether originates USDT-linked deals and runs settlement, and USDT supply stands at $183.4 billion.

Zora Co-Founder Dee Goens Replaces Jacob Horne as CEO — Goens takes over a company now under 10 people after a headcount reduction this year, and named ZORA buybacks among his first priorities. Fees from the protocol's Base deployment are down 99% from a year ago.

Harmony Proposes Sunsetting Network and Moving ONE to Ethereum for AI Video Pivot — the plan would snapshot ONE at the final block and redirect emissions to an AI video business. Harmony told users to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10, because onchain apps and liquidity pools will not migrate.

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That's it for today — have a great weekend! If you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends!