Polymarket receives CFTC approval to open in the U.S.

According to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, the CFTC has given the prediction market the go-ahead to launch in the United States. According to The Block, the internationally popular platform recorded a peak of $2.63 billion in transaction volume in November 2024 driven by U.S. elections betting. – link

OUR TAKE: What a difference a year makes. 

Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which Polymarket odds predicted to a greater degree of accuracy than almost every poll, the FBI conducted a raid on Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s SOHO apartment. 

The FBI alleged that Polymarket – which previously serviced U.S. users from 2020 until 2022, until it settled a $1.4 million fine with the CFTC and quit the jurisdiction – illegally allowed U.S. users onto its platform.

Many at the time believed the investigation was a politically-motivated act of retribution, including Coplan himself.

“It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents. We are deeply committed to being non‑partisan, and today is no different,” he tweeted at the time. 

The ensuing DOJ investigation turned over a nothing burger: they could find no evidence that Polymarket wittingly accepted U.S. users so they dismissed the case on July 15, 2025. 

Shortly following the end of the investigation, Polymarket purchased a CFTC-listed exchange, QCEX, for $112 million, and now here we are. Yesterday’s misfortune is today’s triumph for Polymarket.

-CMH

OG bitcoin whale sells $4B of BTC to buy...$4B of ETH?

A long-dormant Bitcoin whale with over 100,000 BTC (~$11 billion) rotated roughly $4 billion worth of BTC into Ethereum, bringing its ETH holdings to approximately $3.8 billion over the past week. ETH has outperformed Bitcoin in recent weeks by about 20%. - link

OUR TAKE: Imagine holding billions in BTC for +7 years only to sell it to buy Ethereum. 

Technically it has been a pretty decent performing swing trade (outperforming BTC) but you’ve got to wonder what in the world is this guy thinking?

The story isn’t just that the whale sold BTC for ETH. It’s how they sold it.

This whale had over 110,000 BTC and instead of working with a centralized exchange, chose to send billions in BTC to Hyperliquid, a new trading blockchain.

In contrast to other moves, this all happened on-chain. You may recall when the 80,000 BTC whale worked with Galaxy Digital earlier this summer to sell their position. We didn’t necessarily know they were selling (although we could infer).

With this 110,000 BTC whale we could see it all happen on Hyperliquid.

Hyperliquid is becoming the premiere venue for on-chain trading, recently surpassing Coinbase and Bybit in 24 hour spot trading volume. While Bitcoin continues to be gobbled up by institutions and custodians, this bodes well for an on-chain revival.

It’s whale watching season – we’ve seen multiple untouched wallets wake up and finally take profits. But they can only sell once; meanwhile there is an infinite bid (you can’t stop this train!).

-CBS

Luxor is Hiring: Energy Meets Business Development

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StarkNet performs major upgrade that sparks outage

StarkNet’s ambitious Grinta upgrade (v0.14.0) – designed to introduce decentralized sequencing, faster block times, and a revamped fee market – triggered an unexpected 3 - 4 hour network outage due to compatibility issues. The upgrade forced a rollback, requiring users to resubmit transactions. Services soon resumed but the disruption caused a 3–5% drop in the STRK token. - link

Two Seas Capital urges Core Scientific shareholders to block $9 billion CoreWeave deal

Two Seas Capital filed a preliminary proxy statement dated September 3 urging Core Scientific (CORZ) stockholders to vote against the proposed all-stock merger with CoreWeave (CRWV), arguing the deal was the product of a flawed process that undervalues the company - link

Research shows novel “Infiltrated Mining Attack” could risk mining decentralization

A research team from the Singapore University for Technology uncovered a novel mining pool attack they call “Infiltrated Selfish Mining.” An attacker would withhold a block, secretly mine on that block, then release both to the network and essentially “double dip” on rewards. This attack challenges the “miner’s dilemma” assumption and threatens the economic fairness of pooled mining. - link

Trump-backed American Bitcoin (ABTC) rockets up to 110% upon merger completion

American Bitcoin, backed by Eric Trump & Donald Trump Jr., made a splash in the Nasdaq after its merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. American Bitcoin soared 110% premarket before closing with a 17% gain, only to sell off throughout the week to just-above pre-merger prices. - link