Chain of Clouds
Google Cloud will be launching its own blockchain soon.
According to a LinkedIn post by Rich Widmann, the division’s Head of Strategy for Web3, the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL) will be a neutral platform for financial institutions.
While rival platforms may avoid using their competitors’ networks, such as Tether and Circle, Widmann claimed that anybody can build on top of GCUL.
Comparing the network with other proposed chains from Stripe and Circle, GCUL will apparently be a Layer-1 network, with support for Python-based smart contracts.
Details from Google Cloud’s official announcement added that GCUL will be accessible through a single API and highly flexible, allowing for programmatic payments and asset management.
Additionally, GCUL will function as a private, permissioned environment, with compliance at the network’s core.
The chain is live on a private testnet, while a timeline for the full launch has yet to be announced.
Nine Figures for Numerai
AI hedge fund project Numerai has secured a $500M commitment from JPMorgan, close to 3x the fully diluted valuation of its NMR token.
In a recent blog post, Numerai stated that the funds will only be deployed over the next year.
Leveraging on the commitment, the project has also acquired a former researcher from Meta, a former trading engineer from Voleon, and several other important personnel.
Since the investment was announced, the price of NMR has surged by 104% from $8.20 to $16.80 today.
Bringing Ripple to Retail
Crypto exchange Gemini has launched an XRP version of its credit card in collaboration with Ripple Labs.
With largely the same functions as its other cards, the credit card offers cashback rewards in the form of XRP.
According to their announcement post, users can claim up to 4% cashback on EV fuel and rideshares purchases, 3% on dining, and 1% on all other transactions.
The platform also stated that they are looking to offer up to 10% on select purchases made through partner merchants.
Additionally, holders of the Gemini XRP card will not be required to pay any annual fees, as well as foreign or exchange fees when claiming their cashback rewards.
Besides that, the exchange will also be adding Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin as an optional base currency for its US customers.
Despite the launch, the price of XRP has remained largely unchanged, falling slightly by 1.0% from $2.95 to $2.92.
SocialFi Soccer
A new on-chain fantasy football app has taken the crypto space by storm.
Built on the Base L2, Football.fun allows players to build their teams using fractionalized shares of real-world players.
Users can assemble a team and compete in weekly tournaments to earn rewards based on how well their players perform and how many shares they own.
However, shares can deplete over time, forcing users to adapt and manage their squads often.
According to Dune Analytics, activity on the app has exploded with daily trading volume reaching over $33M and an additional $9M deposited on the platform in the past week.
In Other News…
WLFI Tradeable Next Monday. The governance token of World Liberty Financial, the Trump-backed crypto project, is expected to convert its previously untradeable WLFI token to become tradeable.
US Economic Data Posted On-chain. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Tuesday that his department will begin posting economic data on the blockchain. Lutnick has not clarified which blockchain he would post the economic data on.
Thailand Taps on KuCoin for Tokenized Bonds. Thailand’s Ministry of Finance has tapped KuCoin as the first international crypto exchange for its G-Token initiative, an initiative to publicly offer government tokenized bonds.
Donald Trump Jr. Joins PolyMarket Board. Prediction market PolyMarket has added Donald Trump Jr. to its advisory board after receiving a strategic investment from 1789 Capital, where Trump Jr. also sits on its board. This move suggests PolyMarket is looking to make a regulated return to US markets.
MetaMask Introduces Social Logins. Users of the popular Ethereum self-custodial wallet can now sign up and create wallets via their Google or Apple accounts. Lost accounts can also have their access restored via those Google or Apple accounts.
CRO Pumps on Trump Media Teamup. Trump Media, Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp. have teamed up to create a crypto treasury fund for Crypto.com’s CRO token. The fund is expected to have over $1B in CRO. CRO is up 25% on this news.
Don’t Look Up My Search History! Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, two MIT-educated brothers filed motions to exclude their Google search history as evidence against their criminal intent to allegedly exploit and steal $25M of crypto.
Sequans Adds $200M to Bitcoin Treasury. Sequans Communications (NYSE: SQNS), a Paris-based semiconductor firm, is raising $200M via a stock sale to add to their Bitcoin treasury. Sequans already holds over $331M in Bitcoin.
Hayden Davis Extracting Again? Market maker Hayden Davis, who was allegedly involved in the LIBRA memecoin scandal is once again on the move, making over $12M in profits on Kanye West’s memecoin, YZY. Davis sniped the YZY supply 1 minute after the announcement, turning $2.8M into $12M.
A Sharp Rise. Nasdaq-listed Sharps Technology, saw its STSS stock rise over 40% on Monday after it announced a $400M private placement raise, which it intends to use to build a SOL treasury.
Don’t Be Fooled by CR7 Rumors. A spree of fake tokens associated with Cristiano Ronaldo circulated over the weekend due to rumors that he was about to launch a token. One fake token rose to over $143M in market capitalization before crashing over 98%. The narrative appears to be spun up by a group of influencers, who has since deleted their posts suggesting that this scam was an organized group effort.
Big Moves at Eclipse Labs. ETH L2 Eclipse announced major staff changes as it laid off 65% of its team and named Sydney Huang, “0xSydney” as their new CEO. Huang was originally the Product Lead on Eclipse, now promoted to take on the role as CEO after the voluntary departure of their previous CEO, Vijay Chetty.
Are You a Top Shitcoiner? Solana memecoin launchpad Pump.fun has unveiled their new leaderboard feature in collaboration with kolscan. The leaderboard tracks top influencers and traders of the Pump.fun platform.