Scenius Sync (Issue # 190)

Trump names Kevin Warsh for Fed chair, Tether retreats from $20B funding, FIDD goes live for retail and institutional investors, Opinion raises $20M in pre-Series A, & TRM Labs closed $70M in Series C

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. Trump names crypto-friendly Kevin Warsh as pick for Fed chair

   • President Donald Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick to lead the Federal Reserve, confirming speculation that intensified overnight as prediction markets sharply shifted in his favor. “I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Kevin Warsh to be the CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, highlighting his prior service as a Federal Reserve governor, his current role as a Hoover Institution fellow and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, and his work as a partner at Duquesne Family Office alongside Stanley Druckenmiller.

2. Tether retreats from $20bn funding ambitions after investor pushback

   • Tether’s chief executive has downplayed the amount of money it will raise in a new funding round as the world’s largest stablecoin issuer faces investor pushback over its $500bn valuation target. The crypto group, registered in El Salvador, last year began talks to raise $15bn-$20bn in a deal that would make it one of the most valuable private companies. But Tether’s advisers have floated raising as little as $5bn after facing reluctance from investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Tether boss Paolo Ardoino minimised the size of the likely raise, saying the initial $15bn-$20bn target was a “misconception”.

3. Coinbase’s prediction markets draw fire from Nevada regulator over alleged unlicensed sports betting

   • Coinbase is facing a civil lawsuit from Nevada’s gaming regulator, which alleges the crypto exchange has offered unlicensed sports betting through its prediction market products in violation of state law. The Nevada Gaming Control Board filed the suit this week seeking to halt Coinbase’s event-based contracts tied to sporting outcomes, arguing they constitute wagering that requires a state gaming license, according to the complaint. Coinbase’s prediction markets platform allows users to trade contracts linked to real-world events across sports, politics, and other categories. Nevada regulators contend that contracts referencing sports results fall under the state’s gambling statutes regardless of how they are structured or labeled.

4. Upbit partner KBank files stablecoin wallet trademarks ahead of IPO

   • KBank, a South Korean neobank, has filed trademark applications for stablecoin wallets ahead of its planned initial public offering.

     According to the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS), KBank has submitted 13 trademark applications for names including KSC Wallet, KSTA Wallet, Kstable Wallet, and Kbank SC Wallet. It previously filed trademark applications for stablecoin tickers in July 2025. In the database, these applications were classified into software for digital currency, cryptocurrency, and stablecoin transactions; crypto mining; NFT-related software; and financial services. Local media reported that the filings suggest the planned wallet system would be comprehensive, covering functions such as remittances, payments, and settlements.

5. House launches probe into $500 Million UAE deal linked to World Liberty Financial

   • A senior House Democrat has launched a probe into Donald Trump-linked crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) over a reported $500 million investment from an entity tied to the United Arab Emirates royal family.

     Rep. Ro Khanna, a ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, sent a letter on Wednesday requesting detailed information and documents from World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff. The letter cited an earlier Wall Street Journal report of a 49% stake acquisition in World Liberty Financial by Aryam Investment 1, an entity controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a UAE national security advisor and brother of the UAE president.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Fidelity’s stablecoin FIDD goes live for retail and institutional investors

   • Fidelity Investments has launched its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), making it available to both retail and institutional investors after previously saying it would go live in the coming weeks.

     FIDD is issued by Fidelity Digital Assets, National Association, on Ethereum, and can now be purchased or redeemed directly with Fidelity for $1 across the Fidelity Digital Assets, Fidelity Crypto, and Fidelity Crypto for Wealth Managers platforms. Fidelity said the stablecoin will also trade on external crypto exchanges where it is listed, and holders can transfer FIDD to any Ethereum mainnet address.

2. Crypto analytics firm TRM Labs reaches unicorn status following $70M Blockchain Capital-led Series C

   • TRM Labs has reached a $1 billion valuation after closing a $70 million Series C funding round amid growing demand for tools that help national security agencies and companies track illicit activity across crypto markets. The new capital vaults TRM into the ranks of so-called crypto unicorns and comes as law enforcement agencies and financial institutions grapple with a sharp rise in crypto-enabled fraud, sanctions evasion, and illicit finance, according to the firm’s Wednesday announcement.

3. Jupiter brings Polymarket to Solana and lands $35 million investment deal

   • Solana-based exchange Jupiter is integrating Polymarket for the first time on Solana, aiming to make its platform a more comprehensive on-chain predictions hub. Jupiter also announced a $35 million strategic investment in its JUP token from ParaFi Capital, settled entirely in its dollar-pegged JupUSD with an extended token lockup. While no rollout timeline or technical details were disclosed, Jupiter plans to make prediction markets a core pillar alongside swaps, building tools such as APIs, improved discovery and new trading mechanisms.

4. Opinion raises $20 million as prediction markets draw capital in a weak crypto market

   • Blockchain-based prediction-market platform Opinion said it raised $20 million in pre-Series A round, underscoring that some corners of the crypto economy can still attract sizeable funding even when broader markets are depressed. The round included backing from Hack VC, Jump Crypto, Primitive Ventures, Decasonic and others, according to an emailed announcement on Wednesday. Opinion operates more like Polymarket — with markets settled on-chain — than a centralized exchange such as Kalshi. “Our settlement works entirely onchain,” the Opinion team told CoinDesk via email.

     The company handles about a third of all prediction-market volume globally and carries more than $130 million in open interest, it said citing Dune Analytics. Binance Research estimated total December trading volume of around $7 billion, pointing to rising demand as regulatory and political uncertainty intensified.

5. Cboe targets prediction market with ‘all-or-nothing’ options revival: WSJ

   • Cboe Global Markets is in early-stage discussions with retail brokerages and market makers to relaunch “all-or-nothing” binary options contracts, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move targets the surging prediction market sector, where leaders Kalshi and Polymarket logged a combined $17 billion in trading volume in January, a record monthly high. Cboe’s effort, which it previously discontinued in 2008, is a regulated play for the financial-only segment of a market Galaxy Research said has entered a “new phase of mainstream visibility.”