Scenius Sync (Issue # 217)
Senate delays CLARITY Act vote, Bitcoin holders get 96% cheaper BlackRock ETF entry, Coinbase adds UK derivatives, Goldman Sachs buys NEOS for up to $2.25B, & Anchorpoint rolls out HKDAP
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 publication is the following:
Distribute thought leadership that made an impression on us this week
Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.
Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.
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Opinions & Alpha 📡 🧠
Exploring the outlook for Bitcoin — Will Clemente
Key Insights: “We are seeing some fairly heavy long term holder buying from blockchain data readings with DAT capitulation and pretty significant net sell pressure from ETFs as well. Prior Bitcoin bear markets ended from an exhaustion of sellers, not necessarily a catalyst for aggressive new demand. At this point, if you were concerned about DATs, quantum, or underperformance, who else is left to sell at a rate greater than that of the last 6-9 months? Obviously there is risk of a correlation to one spike down from macro/geopolitical turbulence, but speaking with a multi-month high time frame view here. I very much understand that there is no clear catalyst (Clarity perhaps but I don’t think this does a whole lot for Bitcoin specifically), but this is often times what bottoms look like.”
Compute Is Revenue. Revenue Is Collateral. — Prakash
Key Insights: “Third-party financing can make Nvidia’s demand less circular, lower the cost of building useful infrastructure and move risk toward institutions designed to hold long-duration credit. Those are real improvements over a world in which Nvidia or its customers fund every project with corporate equity. The same mechanism can increase leverage, accelerate supply and synchronize losses across customers, equipment values and Nvidia’s own support obligations. The platform works by converting technical uncertainty into contracts, collateral rules and payment priority. It does not abolish the uncertainty.”
AI Hyperscalers Are Pricing Bitcoin Miners Off the Grid— Here’s Why Its a Massive Win-Win — Nick Ward, Bitcoin Magazine
Key Insights: “Hyperscalers are buying up every megawatt of prime, grid-tied power real estate they can find. In doing so, AI is pricing Bitcoin off the main electrical grid. Far from destroying Bitcoin, this eviction restores it to its ideal thermodynamic role. Pushed off the grid, miners are forced to seek out energy that no one else can use: stranded wind in West Texas, flared natural gas in remote oil fields, or off-peak hydro in mountain ranges. AI takes the expensive grid power; Bitcoin captures the world’s wasted energy at the edge, and acts as the buyer of last resort for stranded, wasted, or curtailed energy sources.”
Essential News 🗞
Senate delays Clarity Act vote until after August recess, Thune confirms
The U.S. Senate is delaying a vote on the Clarity Act, a landmark crypto market structure bill, until lawmakers return from their August recess next month. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) confirmed with The Block late Thursday that the Senate is pushing back a procedural vote for the Clarity Act until September. “Well, the Dems are insistent on no Clarity vote. Anyway, I worked with sponsors of the bill,” Thune said. “Senator [Cynthia Lummis] was great, and we’re getting that queued up first thing when we come back.” The Senate is set to leave on a month-long recess starting on Friday and will be back in Washington in mid-September for a few weeks.
CFTC orders Kalshi to continue offering prediction markets in New York after state lawsuit
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it had ordered prediction market operator Kalshi to continue operating in New York after the state filed a lawsuit seeking to shutter the platform. The CFTC used its “emergency authority” to require Kalshi to continue operating after Kalshi asked for help following New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the company at the end of July, the federal regulator said in a Tuesday press release. The action sets up the latest clash between the federal commodities regulator and state regulators over prediction markets.
In a related Kalshi news: Kalshi first prediction market to stream full order books via DoubleZero
And here: FlightAware drops lawsuit against Kalshi one day after filing
Bitcoin Holders Get 96% Cheaper Entry Into BlackRock’s ETF Without Selling
Bitcoin holders no longer need $25 million to swap coins into the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF. The minimum just fell to $1 million, opening a direct route into iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) without selling first. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, revealed the cut on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ show on August 10. He said the firm wants to push the bar even lower over time. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas flagged the change after the broadcast. Until now, the door stood open only to the very largest holders. The swap runs through authorized participants, the big trading firms that create and redeem ETF shares. A holder hands over Bitcoin and receives IBIT shares in return. No sale takes place. The route also works in reverse.
Hyperliquid Turns to CFTC for Path Into U.S. Perpetual Futures Market
Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: $HYPE) is exploring a path into the U.S. perpetual futures market as its policy group presses federal regulators for rules that could bring onchain derivatives under a regulated domestic framework.
With a Senate vote on the CLARITY Act delayed, the decentralized exchange is looking for a route through existing regulatory authority rather than waiting for broader crypto legislation. Hyperliquid does not currently offer its trading platform to U.S. users. Hyperliquid Policy Center CEO Jake Chervinsky said the goal is for regulators to interpret existing rules favourably or create new ones that would allow regulated firms to offer perpetual futures using markets built on Hyperliquid.
Grayscale quietly drops Cardano, Polkadot and Hedera ETF plans
Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments has dropped plans for exchange-traded funds tied to Cardano’s ADA, Polkadot’s DOT and Hedera’s HBAR, withdrawing three registration statements from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Friday. Through three separate requests with the regulator, Grayscale told the SEC it “does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution” of the shares of each trust. The withdrawals were initiated by Grayscale and weren’t SEC rejections. Grayscale’s initial Cardano ETF proposal came in February 2025, and its Polkadot filing later that month. Grayscale filed the corresponding ADA and DOT registration statements on Aug. 29, followed by its HBAR registration on Sept. 9.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Coinbase rolls out derivatives for UK professional investors
Coinbase announced the launch of a suite of derivatives products for professional investors in the UK, expanding its derivatives offering as it advances its broader “Everything Exchange” strategy. The exchange is rolling out perpetuals, dated futures, and crypto options to eligible UK professional clients, with access beginning progressively over the coming weeks, it said in a statement shared with The Block Tuesday. According to the statement, the offering covers more than 170 contracts across crypto, commodities, equities, and foreign exchange, with perpetuals available around the clock and leverage of up to 50x. Dated futures will offer fixed settlement dates and leverage of up to 20x, while the options offering will be limited to crypto and include calls, puts, and multi-leg strategies, the exchange said.
Goldman Sachs’ $2.25B NEOS Deal Hands It Ready-Made Bitcoin Income ETF Business
Goldman Sachs is buying its way into crypto income funds, striking a deal worth up to $2.25 billion to acquire NEOS Investments, the ETF specialist behind one of the market’s largest Bitcoin covered-call products. The Wall Street firm said Tuesday the cash-and-equity purchase, contingent on certain performance and service targets, will fold NEOS’s roughly $30 billion in options-based income ETFs into Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending regulatory approval. While the announcement centered on NEOS’s broader derivative-income lineup rather than crypto, the acquisition quietly delivers Goldman a foothold in digital-asset ETFs it had been building toward on its own.
Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint begins HKDAP stablecoin rollout
Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint began the phased rollout of HKDAP on Wednesday, making the Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin available through beta access to institutional distributors and professional investors.
Anchorpoint is a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank and was established as a joint venture with HKT and Animoca Brands. The company was among the first two firms to receive a stablecoin issuer license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April, alongside HSBC, after the regulator said it had received 36 applications. In a statement on Wednesday, Anchorpoint said its initial focus for HKDAP will be cross-border payments and the settlement and distribution of tokenized real-world assets.
Zama brings its blockchain-privacy token to Revolut’s 70 million users
Zama has listed its native token for trading on Revolut across the European Economic Area on Monday, putting the blockchain-privacy project in front of the fintech’s customer base. The listing opens ZAMA to Revolut’s more than 70 million customers, including the 15 million-plus who already trade crypto on the platform, the company said in a statement. Existing Revolut users can buy and hold the token without opening a new account or completing additional identity checks, with trading fees starting at 0 in the main app. Revolut, which bills itself as the only banking app in the EEA offering onchain crypto transfers, will also let users withdraw ZAMA to a self-custody wallet.
eToro agrees to buy TradeZero for up to $231 million as equities drive Q2 growth
eToro Group(NASDAQ: ETOR) has agreed to acquire TradeZero, a U.S.-focused online brokerage catering to active traders, in a deal valued at up to $231 million. The deal, which includes cash and up to 2.5 million newly issued Class A common shares, is expected to close in the first half of 2027 pending regulatory approvals, according to an announcement on Tuesday. TradeZero, founded in 2015, generated about $80 million in revenue with 81% gross margins over the trailing 12 months ended June 30, and the transaction is projected to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in its first full year. “Today’s announcement is an important step in building our U.S. business,” eToro CEO Yoni Assia said.