News linked to both this project and an event.
Galaxy Digital founder Michael Novogratz and BitGo CEO Mike Belshe are currently litigating over the failed $1.2 billion merger deal from four years ago.According to reports, the transaction was originally intended to take the combined company public on Nasdaq, but was later terminated due to adjustments in SEC accounting guidance and market liquidity crises triggered by the Terra/Luna collapse.BitGo is demanding that Galaxy pay at least $100 million in termination fees, and accuses Galaxy of failing to take reasonable steps to advance the transaction while concealing details of an investigation by U.S. regulators. In response, Novogratz stated that Galaxy was not the subject of the investigation, and argued that BitGo has lost its eligibility to claim the termination fee for failing to submit required financial statements on time. (Bloomberg)
According to Bloomberg, Michael Novogratz, founder and billionaire CEO of Galaxy Digital, faced off in court this week against Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo Holdings, in a four-year-long merger dispute. BitGo is seeking at least $100 million in breach-of-contract damages from Galaxy, stemming from Galaxy’s $1.2 billion acquisition proposal for BitGo in 2021—the largest deal in cryptocurrency industry history at the time—which ultimately collapsed amid the crypto market downturn. BitGo alleges that Galaxy failed to use reasonable efforts to consummate the transaction and concealed material details regarding U.S. regulatory investigations into Galaxy—investigations that could have significantly impacted the merger’s completion.
According to CoinDesk, German stablecoin startup AllUnity plans to launch SEKAU—a Swedish krona-pegged stablecoin—in June, following final regulatory and operational approvals, and will issue it under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework. Meanwhile, AllUnity has also launched Agentic Payments, enabling businesses to receive transactions initiated autonomously by AI software agents and settle funds directly into local bank accounts. The system adopts Coinbase’s x402 payment standard and targets online digital services, content, and data sales. AllUnity is backed by DWS, Flow Traders, and Galaxy Digital, and is regulated by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Checker, a stablecoin infrastructure startup, announced the completion of $8 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Participants include Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures, Framework Ventures, Bitso, Airtm, DFS Lab, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital, and Velocity. The project's primary business is helping financial institutions launch and scale stablecoins and related products through a single API.It is reported that Checker has processed over $3 billion in transaction volume in the past 12 months. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its financial institution network to Brazil, Kenya, Hong Kong, and the United States, and also intends to launch AI agents for client onboarding, compliance assessment, and treasury operations. (theblock)
According to The Block, GalaxyOne Prime NY, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital, has obtained both a BitLicense and a money transmitter license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), officially authorizing it to provide digital asset trading and custody services to residents, institutions, and businesses in New York State.
Odaily Planet Daily: Galaxy Digital announced that it has obtained a BitLicense and money transmitter license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing it to offer digital asset services in New York.The license applies to its subsidiary GalaxyOne Prime NY, which will provide trading and custody services to New York residents, institutions, and enterprises.Galaxy stated that New York is home to the deepest pool of institutional capital in the United States, and digital assets are gradually entering the mainstream allocation scope. With this approval, the company will be able to more directly serve institutional clients in New York.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, posted on X that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted 15–9 this week to advance the CLARITY Act to a full Senate vote. With time running short—approximately nine weeks remain—the projected timeline for next steps is as follows: June 1: Begin reconciling the Senate Banking Committee’s and Senate Agriculture Committee’s versions of the bill; June 15: Full Senate debate begins; June 22: The Senate may complete its final vote; July 13: Senate–House reconciliation concludes; Early August: President Trump signs the bill into law (assuming the schedule stays on track). Alex Thorn analyzed that Democrats are focusing heavily on “ethics provisions” designed to restrict digital asset holdings and profits by senior officials and their family members. Meanwhile, negotiations continue on the Decentralized Finance Regulation and Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). The CLARITY Act will lay the groundwork for innovation in the U.S. digital asset market and for investor protection.
Turnkey, a company specializing in crypto wallets and key management infrastructure, has announced the completion of a $12.5 million strategic financing round. Archetype and Circle Ventures led the round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, Galaxy Ventures, and Variant. The project's total funding has now exceeded $65 million.The company's primary business involves developing wallet and key management infrastructure for crypto applications. This round of financing will be used to support the development and public launch of Turnkey Verifiable Cloud, a product focused on digital asset security computing. This product aims to provide enterprises with verifiable operating environments, encompassing functionalities such as transaction visibility, policy decisions, and agent-driven wallet activities. Turnkey's current clientele includes Polymarket, World App, and Anchorage Digital.
Brian Armstrong posted on platform X, stating that today's vote on the Clarity Act represents a significant opportunity to move the U.S. financial system forward.Previously, Galaxy Digital stated that seven Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee could play a key role in advancing the CLARITY Act. The bill will now enter the committee review stage; if passed, it will be submitted for a full Senate vote.
: Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn stated that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January. The new draft features significant adjustments in several key chapters, including:A substantial rewrite of Chapter I concerning definitions and the scope of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authority; the addition of Section 109 on insider trading; an update in Chapter II changing "common control" to "coordinated control"; a rewrite of Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundary between DeFi and CeFi; an update to Section 404 incorporating the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjustments to Section 505 narrowing the scope of SEC authority limitations in the tokenization field; and a restructuring of the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, namely the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also noted that the developer protection provisions in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, found in Section 604, remain largely intact with only minor modifications, without weakening their core protections.
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Galaxy Digital stated that 7 Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee may play a crucial role in advancing the CLARITY Act. The bill will enter committee review this Thursday; if it passes, it will be submitted for a full vote in the Senate.Galaxy listed Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks as "pro-crypto framework" senators, and considers Mark Warner, Catherine Cortez Masto, Andy Kim, and Raphael Warnock as "negotiable," potentially supporting the bill after the inclusion of additional anti-money laundering and risk control provisions.The report noted that the Senate Banking Committee has 24 members, consisting of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats. The bill needs at least a majority of support to proceed to the next stage. Coinbase's policy head previously stated that the CLARITY Act ultimately needs at least 60 votes and bipartisan support to become law. (Cointelegraph)
U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated in a speech that she does not endorse certain speculative phenomena currently present in the market; financial products that function like lotteries—sparking hopes of short-term wealth—may fade as investor interest wanes. Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, shared the remarks, noting that Peirce anticipates the underlying legal, technological, and market infrastructure supporting these products could be repurposed in the future for more enduring investment and risk-management products. Meanwhile, Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, commented that the SEC’s balancing of regulation and innovation is reassuring, and he speculates that the compliant yet controversial products described by Peirce are in fact “prediction-market ETFs,” which he expects will soon receive approval for listing.
Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins), Head of Research at Galaxy Research, published a post revealing that Galaxy Research has released a new report refuting banking industry claims that the GENIUS Act would erode U.S. bank deposits—and providing quantitative estimates. Key findings from the report include: - Under the GENIUS Act framework, 60%–70% of new stablecoin issuance would originate overseas; inflows of foreign deposits would be approximately twice the volume of domestic deposit migration—indicating a net increase in total deposits rather than a zero-sum reallocation. - Each newly minted GENIUS stablecoin would generate approximately $0.32 in net credit for the U.S. economy. - In the base-case scenario, total credit expansion by 2030 would reach roughly $400 billion; under the optimistic scenario, it could reach $1.2 trillion. - Short-term U.S. Treasury yields (T-bills) would compress by 3–5 basis points, potentially saving taxpayers up to $3 billion annually in borrowing costs. - The report also notes that the interest pass-through mechanism does not pose an existential threat to U.S. banks—it merely represents a reallocation of profit margins and will not reduce overall credit capacity.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy, posted on X stating that the CLARITY Act has taken on heightened urgency, partly due to the exceptionally tight race for control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats regain control of the Senate, former Senator Sherrod Brown could resume his role as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee; alternatively, if Brown fails to win re-election to the Senate from Ohio but Democrats still secure Senate control, the committee may instead be led by Elizabeth Warren. Such potential leadership changes could significantly influence the regulatory direction for the crypto industry, thereby increasing the practical urgency of advancing the CLARITY Act. Note: Elizabeth Warren is not friendly toward the crypto industry. She has urged the U.S. Department of the Treasury to issue stringent implementing rules for the GENIUS Act and explicitly issued guidance prohibiting the use of federal resources—including the Exchange Stabilization Fund or Federal Reserve emergency lending facilities—to backstop stablecoins or the broader crypto industry.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Research, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the CLARITY Act—has entered a critical legislative phase. With the Senate’s key compromise proposal on stablecoin yield officially released, positive signals have emerged for the bill’s advancement. The Senate Banking Committee could begin formal consideration as early as the week of May 11. The new proposal explicitly expands the scope of stablecoin yield restrictions—from issuers to third-party platforms, including crypto exchanges such as Coinbase—and stipulates that yields must not be paid solely because users hold stablecoins (i.e., idle balances), nor may rewards be distributed in forms that are economically or functionally equivalent to bank deposit interest.
AllUnity, a joint venture backed by DWS, Flow Traders, and Galaxy Digital, announced the expansion of its Euro-denominated stablecoin EURAU, which complies with the EU's MiCA regulatory framework, to the Solana blockchain network. This move aims to enhance the efficiency of on-chain Euro transfers and support compliant financial applications.EURAU was first launched on Ethereum in July last year, backed by 100% reserves and issued under the EU's e-money regulatory framework. By integrating with Solana, AllUnity seeks to leverage its high-performance network to achieve faster settlement speeds and lower transaction costs, enabling businesses and developers to complete on-chain Euro transfers within seconds.This mechanism can be widely applied in areas such as cross-border payments, transaction settlement, lending, and corporate treasury management. For instance, payment companies can execute real-time payments to overseas contractors without waiting days for traditional bank transfers to settle. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, Jaret Seiberg, Managing Director of the Washington Research Group at investment bank TD Cowen, stated that stablecoin yield issues are not the sole obstacle to the passage of the Clarity Act—and cited the following five additional hurdles: 1. A severe shortage of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners: only Chairman Michael Selig remains in office, and the process to appoint new commissioners could take several months, while the bill must complete its review by the end of July; 2. Complex regulatory questions surrounding prediction markets—including concerns about insider trading and potential conflicts of interest involving the Trump family—which may prompt Democratic lawmakers to withdraw their support via related amendments; 3. Ongoing controversy surrounding World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project affiliated with the Trump family, increasing political resistance from Democrats toward supporting the bill; 4. Reports indicating Iran is discussing requiring vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to pay tolls in cryptocurrency—a development that could trigger contentious anti-money laundering (AML) amendments, potentially serving as a “poison pill” for the bill; 5. Risk that the Credit Card Competition Act could be attached to the Clarity Act, jeopardizing the entire bill’s progress. Regarding stablecoin yield issues, Senator Thom Tillis indicated that the Senate Banking Committee will not vote on the bill until as early as May. TD Cowen maintains its assessment that the bill has approximately a one-in-three chance of passing this year, while Galaxy Digital estimates the probability at roughly 50%.
Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, stated that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list—the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List—has historically included 518 Bitcoin addresses, which collectively received 249,814 BTC and sent 239,708 BTC, leaving a current net balance of approximately 9,306 BTC—valued at roughly $707 million at current market prices. Thorn also noted that OFAC sanctions represent only one of several U.S. tools for intercepting illicit assets, and the CLARITY Act would further expand the Treasury Department’s related authorities.
According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken was extorted by a criminal group that threatened to publicly release videos of its internal systems. Kraken stated that it had previously identified and addressed two incidents involving unauthorized access by internal personnel, affecting limited customer data from approximately 2,000 accounts—0.02% of its total user base—but emphasized that its systems were never breached and customer funds remained secure at all times. Nick Percoco, Kraken’s Chief Security Officer, explicitly affirmed the company would not capitulate to criminals. Kraken has notified affected users, enhanced security controls, and is cooperating with law enforcement authorities to advance the investigation; it believes existing evidence is sufficient to identify and apprehend those responsible. Separately, Galaxy Digital recently experienced a similar cybersecurity incident, though it likewise resulted in no loss of customer funds or data.