Polymarket Founder Hints at POLY Token

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Good Morning.

Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan just hinted at a POLY token, days after ICE’s $2B deal valued the platform at $9B. With $19B in trading volume and backing from Founders Fund, Polymarket looks ready to turn its hype into a full ecosystem play.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Polymarket Founder Hints at POLY Token 👀 

• Founders Highlight: Jesse and Donald of BVNK 👨 

• Deal Flows: PayPay Buys 40% of Binance Japan 💰️ 

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WHAT MATTERS

Polymarket Founder Hints at POLY Token

State of play: Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan hinted at a possible POLY token launch in a cryptic X post. The tease came shortly after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) committed to invest $2B in Polymarket at a $9B valuation.

• Coplan, recently named Bloomberg’s youngest self-made billionaire, implied that POLY could rank among the largest tokens by market cap.

• The company’s SEC filings from September, referencing “other warrants,” and past social media posts have already fueled speculation of a token launch.

• Polymarket has now processed nearly $19B in cumulative trading volume since its 2020 debut and raised $150M earlier this year led by Founders Fund.

Why it matters: If POLY goes live, it could become one of the biggest launches in years.

Our take: A token could supercharge growth but also raise the bar.

For builders and investors: POLY could become the benchmark for prediction-market tokens.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Jesse and Donald of BVNK

Intro: Jesse Hemson-Struthers and Donald Jackson are the Co-Founders of BVNK, an enterprise-grade payment infrastructure for businesses to integrate stablecoin and traditional currency payments.

Previous background: Jesse is a serial entrepreneur, his previous ventures in e-commerce and gaming were successfully acquired by global media giants Naspers and Sportradar respectively.

Donald has extensive experience in enterprise grade systems and blockchain technology. Previously founded Cue, a bootstrapped customer engagement platform, and Verity, a fraud reduction service.

The big idea: Jesse and Donald through BVNK want to make stablecoins a default settlement layer for international payments.

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INSIGHTS

JPMorgan Predicts $1.5B Inflows for Solana ETFs

JPMorgan expects spot Solana ETFs to win regulatory approval soon but says investor interest will likely be modest. Analysts estimate around $1.5B in net inflows during the first year, roughly 1/7 of what Ethereum ETFs attracted in their debut year.

• Solana’s smaller DeFi ecosystem, lower onchain activity, and a perception gap compared to Ethereum as the dominant smart contract network.

• While optimism around approval has already narrowed the Grayscale Solana Trust’s premium, analysts say broader investor fatigue from multiple crypto ETF launches could also weigh on demand.

• JPMorgan’s latest projection marks a sharp downgrade from earlier estimates that suggested Solana ETFs could see as much as $5B in inflows within a year of approval.

DEAL FLOWS

PayPay Buys 40% of Binance Japan

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $3.1B+ in deals 💼 

PayPay, Japan’s leading digital payment platform backed by SoftBank, has acquired a 40% stake in Binance Japan.

• The partnership aims to merge PayPay’s 70M-user network with Binance’s blockchain infrastructure to make crypto payments more accessible.

• The two companies plan to integrate PayPay Money into Binance Japan’s app, allowing users to buy and sell crypto directly through the payment platform.

• Binance Japan said the move will make Web3 services easier to use and help bridge the gap between fiat and digital assets in Japan’s growing crypto market.

Deal flows in the past week:

• TransCrypts, $15M Seed Round

• Coinflow, $25M Series A Round

• Limitless, $1M Public Token Sale

• Polymarket, $2B Strategic Investment

• 375ai, $5M Unknown Round

• LAB Terminal, $5M Unknown Round

• Agio Ratings, $6M Unknown Round

• Grass, $10M Unknown Round

• Falcon Finance, $10M Unknown Round

• Block Street, $11.5M Unknown Round

• Bee Maps, $32M Unknown Round

• Amdax, $35M Unknown Round

• Meanwhile, $82M Unknown Round

• Polymarket, $150M Unknown Round

• BVNK, $750M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• PayPay acquires 40% stake in Binance Japan.

• BitMine adds $104M worth of ETH to its treasury.

• Ocean Protocol withdraws from AI token alliance.

• Kraken expands access to traditional CME contracts.

• BlackRock’s BTC ETF surpasses 800,000 BTC in AUM.

• Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan teases potential POLY token.

• Coinbase integrates DEX trading within its exchange for US users.

• JPMorgan says Solana ETFs could see low inflows of around $1.5B.

• Coinbase and Mastercard in $2B bidding race for stablecoin firm BVNK.

• State Street finds institutional investors eye doubling their crypto exposure.

• BNB-based memecoins plummet after CZ says tweets are 'not endorsement.'

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Hitesh’s read on A Wake up Call to Save Crypto

• Arndxt’s read on BNB as the New Bitcoin - Beyond Four K

• Delphi Digital’s read on Perps traders pay an invisible tax on every trade

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