Daily News: SEC Exempts Liquid Staking from Securities, CEA Industries Raises $500M for BNB Purchase, MetaMask to Launch Stablecoin with Stripe and More

US SEC Issues New Guidance: Certain Liquid Staking Activities Exempt from Securities Laws

The US SEC has clarified in its latest guidance that certain liquid staking activities are not subject to securities laws, and participants involved in such activities are not required to register with the SEC.

The guidance specifies that unless the staked crypto assets themselves qualify as or are subject to investment contracts, the issuance and sale of staking receipt tokens do not constitute securities under the definitions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. This regulation may impact liquid staking service providers such as Lido, Marinade Finance, JitoSOL, and Stakewise.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins emphasized that this move marks an important step in delineating the regulatory boundaries for crypto assets and is one of the initial outcomes of the agency's "Project Crypto" initiative. Industry insiders believe that this guidance could potentially facilitate the approval process for spot Ethereum ETFs, particularly in the context of staking functionalities.

Trump Names Vance as Likely Successor to Lead MAGA Movement

US President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that current Vice President Vance is "most likely" to become the successor of his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement.

Secretary of State Rubio told Fox News that Vance would be an excellent nominee if he decides to run. Trump responded to this remark, saying, "I think he [Vance] is the most likely." He added, "We have some very outstanding talents, some of whom are sitting on this stage today. So it’s too early to talk about this now, but it’s certain that Vance is doing an excellent job and is currently the most favored candidate."

Earlier in the day, Trump mentioned in an interview with CNBC that he is "unlikely" to seek a third presidential term.

Robinhood Crypto Adds ONDO and FLOKI for US Users

Robinhood Crypto announced early today the addition of ONDO and FLOKI tokens for its US-based users, aiming to further expand the range of assets available on its platform.

Towns Protocol Launches Airdrop Eligibility Checker

Social communication protocol Towns Protocol has launched its official airdrop eligibility checker, enabling users to verify their token allocation and boost rewards through staking, ahead of the token distribution scheduled for August 5.

Magic Eden to Distribute Season 2 Rewards on August 6

Magic Eden announced on X that it will distribute 8 million $ME tokens as Season 2 rewards on August 6, marking a major milestone in its user loyalty and engagement program.

MetaMask Plans Collaboration with Stripe to Launch Stablecoin MetaMask USD

MetaMask is planning to partner with Stripe to introduce a stablecoin named MetaMask USD (mmUSD). The stablecoin will be issued by Stripe but will utilize the M^0 network for issuance and settlement.

MetaMask USD is designed to become the cornerstone asset of the MetaMask ecosystem, with native integration across multiple functional modules such as the MetaMask wallet, trading, buying, selling, and yield generation. The stablecoin aims to provide a neutral and highly liquid base currency to enhance stablecoin liquidity and optimize the decentralized finance user experience. Currently, neither MetaMask nor Stripe has provided official confirmation.

Ethereum Developers Propose EIP-0000: A Unified Multi-Dimensional Fee Market Mechanism

Ethereum core developers Anders Elowsson and Vitalik Buterin have jointly introduced a new proposal, EIP-0000, which aims to establish a unified multi-dimensional fee market mechanism.

The proposal suggests enabling users to set a single maximum fee cap (max_fee) for various types of resources, thereby improving capital efficiency. This mechanism would make max_fee interchangeable across different resource types, potentially streamlining the management of separate fee markets for blobs, calldata, and gas. Additionally, the proposal lays the groundwork for integrating more resource types in the future.

UK Engineer Abandons Bitcoin Hard Drive Search, Plans to Tokenize Legal Ownership of 8,000 BTC

James Howells, a UK IT engineer who famously lost a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC in a Newport landfill, has announced he will no longer pursue efforts to excavate the site. However, he clarified that he has not given up on reclaiming ownership of the Bitcoin.

Howells plans to tokenize the legal ownership of the 8,000 BTC, as confirmed by the courts, by launching a smart token named Ceiniog Coin (INI) on a Bitcoin Layer 2 network.

CEA Industries Completes $500 Million Private Placement, Led by YZi Labs

CEA Industries (NASDAQ: VAPE) has today announced the completion of a $500 million private placement and will rebrand as "BNB Network Company," with its stock ticker set to change to "BNC" on August 6. The company plans to use the funds raised to purchase BNB tokens as its primary reserve asset.

The private placement was led by YZi Labs and attracted over 140 institutional participants, including Pantera Capital and Blockchain.com.

Additionally, the company has appointed David Namdar, former co-founder of Galaxy Digital, as CEO, and Russell Read, former investment director at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), as investment director.

MEI Pharma Acquires 929,548 LTC at an Average Price of $107.58

MEI Pharma (NASDAQ: MEIP), a US pharmaceutical company, has announced the acquisition of 929,548 Litecoin (LTC) at an average purchase price of $107.58, totaling approximately $110 million. This move makes MEI Pharma the first publicly traded company in the United States to adopt Litecoin as its primary reserve asset.

Earlier reports revealed MEI Pharma had completed a $100 million private placement, with plans to include Litecoin in its financial reserves.

SharpLink Increases Ethereum Holdings to Over 520,000 ETH

SharpLink (NASDAQ: SBET) has announced it now holds a total of 521,939 Ethereum (ETH). Between July 28 and August 3, the company acquired an additional 83,561 ETH at an average price of $3,634, with a total investment of $264.5 million. This acquisition has raised the company's Ethereum concentration metric from 3.40 last week to 3.66, marking an 83% increase since the strategy was implemented on June 2.

SharpLink has staked all of its Ethereum holdings, earning a cumulative staking reward of 929 ETH to date.