crypto

Jack Morse5/14/24

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund makes a $45M bet on crypto-prediction markets

Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm led by Peter Thiel, is said to have led a $45M investment round into Polymarket.

The self-proclaimed “world’s largest prediction market” lets users bet on all kinds of real-world events ranging from US election outcomes to the number of times Roaring Kitty will tweet this week.

The currency of choice: the stablecoin USDC.

With over $170M wagered on US elections alone, Polymarket’s grown into a real player in the so-called event contracts space.

That said, the future isn’t entirely clear for the space as a whole. Just last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to propose rules that’d ban certain types of event contracts.

Polymarket raises $45 million from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Vitalik Buterin and others

Polymarket raises $45 million from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Vitalik Buterin and others

The currency of choice: the stablecoin USDC.

With over $170M wagered on US elections alone, Polymarket’s grown into a real player in the so-called event contracts space.

That said, the future isn’t entirely clear for the space as a whole. Just last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to propose rules that’d ban certain types of event contracts.

More Crypto

Sage D. Young1h

April 1 is known as a day for funny pranks. However, a popular trading venue on the solana blockchain, Drift, is suffering from an ongoing exploit today, on-chain data shows.

“Drift Protocol is experiencing an active attack. Deposits and withdrawals have been suspended. We are coordinating with multiple security firms, bridges, and exchanges to contain the incident. This is not an April Fools joke,” the team said on social media at 2:58 p.m. ET.

TheBlock reported the exploit is at least $200 million, while blockchain sleuth Lookonchain estimates the figure is $270 million. It could be even more. At this range, the Wednesday hack is among the largest ever, according to the exploits ranking dashboard from Rekt.

Drift’s exploit is concerning for those within the crypto industry. Solana treasury firm DeFi Development Corp. allocates a portion of its balance to on-chain strategies to generate yield, including Drift, though the firm announced it had no exposure to the protocol and “was not impacted by an alleged exploit affecting the platform,” per its press release.

Drift also provides to qualified users sACRED, a derivative token of a tokenized feeder fund that is linked to Apollo Global Management Inc.’s traditional Diversified Credit Fund.

Google Research: Quantum computers a “serious threat” to 6.7 million bitcoin, including Satoshi’s coins

“Their fast-clock architecture could crack a private key in 9 minutes, while bitcoin blocks take 10 minutes on average. That changes the threat model entirely.”

Quantum Computing illustration

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin treasury firm Nakamoto bought high and sold much, much lower as bitcoin suffers another bad quarter

Bitcoin is on track to close the first quarter of 2026 down more than 24%.

A bronze statue of “Satoshi Nakamoto”

crypto

Sage D. Young3/30/26

Ethereum looks likely to register first monthly green candle since August

Ethereum has increased nearly 4% in the last 24 hours, outpacing crypto majors in the period.

If the asset can hold the current level, trading around $2,065, ethereum will record its first monthly green candle since August, helping the token outperform the broader market slump during the Iran War.

Amid the news, BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest ethereum treasury firm and largest staking entity, announced acquiring 71,179 tokens, or $146.3 million, in the past week.

“Crypto is demonstrating itself to be a good ‘war time’ store of value,” BitMine Chairman Tom Lee said in a press release.

“The inverse correlation of crypto (and equities) to oil has been increasing and is at the highest levels in the past year. This is logical. Until equity markets become comfortable with the future trajectory of oil prices, rising oil is a headwind for equities and crypto. And in a sense, the crypto winter likely ends when the upside risk to oil prices peaks,” Lee continued.

Meanwhile, ethereum ETFs suffered last week, with the investment vehicles registering $206.6 million in outflows, the third-most in the year, data from SoSoValue shows.

In other ethereum news:

The Ethereum Foundation staked around $46.2 million worth of ethereum on Monday, according to on-chain data. “This is more ETH than they have EVER staked before,” Arkham Intelligence said on social media.
Lido, the second-largest decentralized finance protocol and known for its liquid staking services, primarily for ethereum, is considering a $20 million buyback for its native token, LDO, which has plummeted nearly 96% since its all-time high of $7.30 set in 2021.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin lifts following Trump’s “great progress” comments, may break 5-month losing streak

“Under the surface, the market is not broken, though it is still thin.”

Bitcoin Medals Manufactured At Sakamoto Metal

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