Scenius Sync (Issue #123)

Stripe's $1.1B Bet On Bridge Stablecoin Platform, Radiant Capital $50M Hack Among Most Sophisticated Ever, Italy To Raise Capital Gains on BTC, & Crypto.com's Bet-The-Company Case

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

If you find this newsletter valuable, please subscribe and share The Scenius Sync with your network 💪

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Essential News 🗞

1. Radiant Capital’s $50M Breach Among ‘Most Sophisticated Hacks’ in DeFi History

   • Decentralized finance project Radiant Capital has claimed that groups analyzing its breach earlier this week “believe this was one of the most sophisticated hacks ever recorded in DeFi” and that “many protocols are at risk”. Radiant and Web3 auditor Hacken estimated the approximate scale of the theft at $50 million, and it’s thought that USDT, USDC, and ARB tokens were stolen. In a blog explaining the attack, Radiant claimed hackers successfully compromised at least three developers’ hardware wallets, though they were not able to say the exact number. Radiant claims the hackers then used malware to “manipulate transaction data at the device level” and used “poisoned signatures” that looked legitimate to the signers authorizing the transaction. The hackers allegedly used the compromised wallets to then carry out three multi-signature approvals to move crypto to wallets they controlled.

   • Link to the port-mortem blog here: Radiant Capital Post-Mortem

2. FBI arrests Alabama man behind SEC social media hack and phony spot bitcoin ETF post

   • Eric Council Jr., 25, was charged with “conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.” The SEC’s X account was compromised earlier this year after a post was put out that falsely said spot bitcoin ETFs had been approved.

3. Italy plans to raise capital gains tax on bitcoin from 26% to 42%: report

   • Italy plans to increase capital gains tax on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to 42%, Vice Economy Minister Maurizio Leo said during a press conference on the country’s budget for 2025, according to local newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. "We foresee an increase in the tax on bitcoin capital gains from 26% to 42%," Leo said, per a translation of the report, presenting measures approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday evening, aimed at generating resources to support families, youth and businesses. Since the 2023 tax year, capital gains above €2,000 ($2,180) were taxed at 26% after several new rules for cryptocurrency taxation were introduced — a shift from the previous treatment of crypto as foreign currency, which had lower tax rates​.

4. Crypto.com v. SEC Is a Bold, 'Bet the Company' Case

   • Last week, you probably saw that the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com sued the SEC. Maybe you moved on with your day, or read on to see that the company is “seek[ing] declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') from unlawfully expanding its jurisdiction to cover secondary-market sales of certain network tokens.”

5. Craig Wright Says Bitcoin Devs 'Misled the Public' in New $1 Billion Lawsuit

   • Craig Wright launched a new legal battle claiming that Bitcoin developers have deviated from the original vision of the project and insisting that Bitcoin SV is the real Bitcoin. The claim is seeking from the defendants the difference in market valuation between the two coins, over $1.18 billion. If Wright’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he previously claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto himself, getting tied up into a legal battle that he ultimately lost. The recently filed UK High Court claim states that the defendants have “altered the original Bitcoin protocol” through the introduction of the SegWit and Taproot upgrades which “fundamentally deviates” from the original vision set out by Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator Bitcoin. As a result he believes that the defendants created “confusion within the market” and “misled the public into believing that BTC retains the attributes of the original Bitcoin.” Named in the lawsuit is Bitcoin Core, the developers of Bitcoin node software, and Jack Dorsey’s Square Up Europe Limited, a payment service that funded a Bitcoin Lightning Network company.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion in crypto's largest acquisition

   • Payments company Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal, according to TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.  Stripe’s largest acquisition to date, and the largest acquisition in the crypto industry’s history, Bridge had raised $58 million from investors and was previously valued at $200 million.  Bridge offers software that helps businesses accept payments in stablecoins and signals an expansion of Stripe’s crypto adoption efforts. 

2. Bitcoin ETFs Add Billions of Dollars Amid Rising Trump Optimism: CoinShares

   • A rise in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices late last week came after investors went hard into digital asset funds, according to full week data released on Monday. Data from European asset manager CoinShares shows that such vehicles received the highest amount of inflows since July: a monster $2.2 billion over the course of last week. Most of the money came from American investors seeking exposure to Bitcoin, CoinShares said, with $2.13 billion worth of inflows last week. The reason, according to a Monday report, is increasing investor bullishness that ex-President Donald Trump will win next month’s election. The business mogul and Republican candidate for the White House has been far more pro-crypto in messaging than Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

   • Similarly US spot bitcoin ETFs reach highest recorded total asset value after six-day inflow streak &

3. ApeCoin Doubles in Price as ApeChain Launches With Pump.fun Clone, 'Top Trader' Game

   • ApeChain, a new Ethereum layer-2 network, was launched by the ApeCoin DAO on Sunday at ApeFest Lisbon, leading to APE doubling in price. The anticipated mainnet launch of the Bored Ape Yacht Club-aligned network came with numerous apps and games, including a meme coin launchpad, a leverage trading simulator, and other games.

4. NYSE, Cboe Win SEC Approval for Bitcoin ETF Options

   • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved stock exchange rule changes that permit the listing of options tied to spot bitcoin ETFs, broadening the investment ecosystem around products that've received billions of dollars of inflows this year. According to two memos from the SEC published Friday afternoon, NYSE will be allowed to list and trade options on the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB). Cboe Global Markets got approval to list and trade options on the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB). The approval comes several weeks after the SEC approved Nasdaq's rule proposal to allow the listing and trading of options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

   • In related news: Institutional interest soars as CME bitcoin futures open interest sets new all-time high

5. Blockchain Capital leads $33 million Series C in African stablecoin exchange Yellow Card

   • Blockchain Capital has led a $33 million Series C funding round in African stablecoin exchange Yellow Card. Other participants included Polychain Capital, Third Prime Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Block, Inc., Galaxy Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, Hutt Capital, and Winklevoss Capital.