JPM, BofA, Citi, Wells Fargo Explore Joint Stablecoin

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Good Morning.

GENIUS bill passed, and we’ll see a slew of new stablecoins, but some skeptics like JPM still argues that they don’t think we’ll see the trillions being touted by others in the space. Meanwhile, Cetus protocol on Sui got exploited, with the hackers potentially being stopped by the Sui foundation themselves.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: US Megabanks Explore Joint Stablecoin 💵 

• Founders Highlight: Sean Neville of Catena Labs 👨 

• Deal Flow: World Raises $135M from a16z, Bain Capital 👀 

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WHAT MATTERS

US Megabanks Explore Joint Stablecoin

State of play: JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and other major US banks are in discussions about launching a joint stablecoin through entities they co-own, such as The Clearing House and Zelle’s parent company, Early Warning Services.

• The talks remain preliminary and are closely tied to the outcome of US stablecoin legislation.

• Progress on the GENIUS Act could determine whether the consortium moves forward.

• This signals growing institutional interest in regulated digital dollar infrastructure.

What’s next: If the GENIUS Act passes with clear regulatory frameworks, it could pave the way for a jointly issued, fully compliant stablecoin backed by US financial giants.

For builders and investors: It’s about finding your own edge in the stablecoin game.

• The issuance space is clearly extremely competitive, what’s your unique flow?

• The aggregation space is interesting, but how are you acquiring distribution?

• The settlement space might be fragmented itself, how do you stand out?

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Sean Neville of Catena Labs

Intro: Sean Neville is the Co-Founder and CEO of Catena Labs, a regulated AI-native financial institution enabling agent-driven payments, identity, and financial services for the emerging agent economy.

Previous background: Sean is a tech entrepreneur and software architect who co-founded Circle. Before that, he founded Sevenchord and The Code Studio, and held senior engineering roles at Brightcove, Adobe, Macromedia, and Allaire.

The big idea: Sean, through Catena Labs, is building a regulated financial platform designed for AI agents, enabling them to transact with stablecoins, manage identity, and operate safely in the new agent economy.

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INSIGHTS

Crypto Perp Futures May Soon Trade in US

State of play: CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger said crypto perpetual futures could soon go live in the US, noting it would be beneficial to bring this trading back onshore.

• Futures trading across all crypto generated nearly $3.7T in volume last month.

• Mersinger, who will step down on May 30 to lead the Blockchain Association, has advocated for clear digital asset regulation.

• The announcement caused Hyperliquid’s HYPE token to spike, reflecting market optimism about US support for perpetual products.

DEAL FLOWS

World Raises $135M from a16z, Bain Capital

Deal flows remained steady this week - we saw $230M in deals 💼 

Sam Altman’s World Network has raised $135M in a private WLD token sale to venture capital firms a16z and Bain Capital. The sale marks a major funding milestone aimed at expanding the network's infrastructure and Orb-verified identity services in the US.

• The token, used within World’s miniapp ecosystem, recently became accessible to American users after previous restrictions.

• As part of the announcement, the team shared plans to bring Orbs, the project’s biometric identity devices, to over half the US population by year-end.

• The deal also increased WLD’s circulating supply and pushed its token price up by 14%.

Deal flows in the past week:

• World, $135M Private Token Sale

• Rover, $4.1M Seed Round

• XP, $6.2M Seed Round

• Catena Labs, $18M Seed Round

• XSY, $5M Series A Round

• TrueX, $11M Series A Round

• Slash, $41M Series B Round

• Acurast, $5.4M Public Token Sale

• Giza, $2.2M Unknown Round

• VOYA Games, $5M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• Jupiter unveils a new lending protocol.

• SEC acknowledges Canary Capital’s Tron ETF filing.

• Ledger releases Solana-branded non-custodial wallet.

• FIFA taps Avalanche for own EVM-compatible network.

• Kraken to offer tokenized US stocks to non-US clients.

• Cetus offers $6M white hat deal to recover stolen ETH.

• Anthony Pompliano did a $220M fintech-focused SPAC.

• Major US banks in early talks for joint stablecoin venture.

• R3 to enter public internet capital markets through Solana.

• Bitcoin open interest hits record high as BTC slips below $111K.

• CFTC's Mersinger says crypto perp futures could come to the US.

• Rep. Waters targets 'crypto corruption' hours before Trump's memecoin gala.

• Strategy launches $2.1B STRF perp preferred stock ATM program to buy BTC.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Meltem’s read on the nuclear value chain.

• Mirana’s read on the Hyperliquid opportunity.

• Noble’s read on composable yield for stablecoins.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.