Radix's New $10 Million Ecosystem Fund Is Paving the Way for DeFi's Mass Adoption

Ripple, the blockchain tech firm closely associated with the XRP Ledger (XRP) network, said on Monday it has acquired crypto wallet provider Palisade to expand its institutional custody and payments offering.

Palisade’s wallet-as-a-service platform will be integrated into Ripple Custody, a product designed for banks and corporates handling digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.

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Ripple said Palisade brings tools for high-speed, high-frequency use cases — like on- and off-ramps or enterprise payment flows — where users need secure wallets that can be created and deployed quickly. The tech also supports multiple blockchains and can interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

Ripple’s broader strategy is to build out a crypto-native alternative to traditional financial infrastructure. That includes cross-border payments, liquidity, stablecoin issuance and, increasingly, the tools needed to manage assets securely. Ripple said it now holds over 75 regulatory licenses globally and supports banks such as BBVA, DBS and Societe Generale’s crypto division.

With acquiring Palisade, Ripple gains the technical plumbing to serve faster-moving customers like fintechs needing instant wallet creation for new users or corporates managing global treasury operations, Ripple President Monica Long told CoinDesk in an interview.

"Palisade offered the best set of capabilities to complement what we have built with Ripple Payments, which has been growing tremendously this year with stablecoin payment proliferation," Long said.

The acquisition follows Ripple’s 2023 purchase of Swiss custody firm Metaco and three other deals this year: $1.25 billion for prime broker Hidden Road (now Ripple Prime), $200 million for stablecoin payments firm Rail and treasury tech provider GTreasury.

Read more: Ripple Expands U.S. Institutional Offering With Introduction of Digital Asset Spot Prime Brokerage

Ripple News: Acquires Crypto Wallet Firm to Expand Institutional Payments Business

Hackers are exploiting wireless technology to access Android users’ critical data, steal login credentials and drain bank accounts, according to cybersecurity researchers.

Analysts at Zimperium say over 760 malicious apps are exploiting NFC wireless technology to capture payment data during tap-to-pay transactions.

The apps masquerade as legitimate banking and government applications, tricking users into setting them as default NFC payment methods.

Once installed, they intercept card numbers, expiration dates, and EMV fields, exfiltrating data to hackers via private Telegram channels.

The campaign was initially discovered in April of 2024 and has expanded to target users in Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Brazil.

Impersonated institutions include major banks like Santander, VTB, Tinkoff, Promsvyazbank, Bradesco, and PKO Bank Polski.

The malicious apps send stolen data like card details and login credentials from victims’ phones to a network of over 70 command-and-control servers.

From there, dozens of automated Telegram bots handle the coordination, process incoming data, execute commands and manage the flow of operations across the campaign.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Hackers Hit Android Users, Drain Bank Accounts Remotely Through 760 Apps: Report

President Trump says he knows little to nothing about Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

Trump pardoned Zhao last month, erasing the billionaire’s 2023 conviction for anti-money laundering violations.

In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, the president was questioned about his connection to the crypto mogul.

“I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”

The pardon generated controversy because Binance has some intertwining business interests with World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project co-founded by Trump and his sons.

World Liberty launched the stablecoin USD1, which is designed to keep a 1:1 peg to the US dollar, in March. In May, the firm’s co-founder and chief executive, Zach Witkoff, announced that the state-backed Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX tapped USD1 to close a $2 billion investment in Binance.

And days after Trump pardoned Zhao, Binance’s US platform rolled out trading services for the stablecoin, prompting US Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) to accuse the White House of being a “full-time, 24/7 corruption machine.”

Trump maintained in his interview on Sunday that he knew nothing about Zhao other than he had heard the Binance founder “was a victim of weaponization by government.”

Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, which enabled illicit activities, including drug trafficking and terrorism financing. The exchange settled with the Justice Department for $4.3 billion, and Zhao served four months in prison.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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‘I Don’t Know Who He Is’: Trump Questioned on Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Following Pardon

Lava, a global platform for bitcoin-backed loans, today announced a $200M funding round and the launch of a new product, a bitcoin line of credit (BLOC). The product offers similar functionality to a securities-backed loan or home equity line of credit, but allows users the ability to flexibly borrow using bitcoin as collateral without the monthly payments or term limits common in the bitcoin-backed loans market today.

According to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine, the $200M financing “includes a combination of venture and debt capital” and brings two new high-profile angels on board: Anthony Pompliano, Bitcoin investor and entrepreneur, and Eric Jackson, activist public markets investor and founder of EMJ Capital.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Lava as an investor,” says Jackson. “Shehzan and his team are world-class, and they’ve been incredibly innovative on the product side. Not only is their revolving line of credit a first in the industry, but they’ve also managed to secure the lowest borrowing rates for their users— beating the rates of much older incumbents in the space. This is hands-down the best product in the market, and Lava is setting a new standard for bitcoin-backed loans.”

As a result of the new fundraising, Lava now offers what may be the lowest fixed interest rates available in the bitcoin lending market, “starting at just 5%” for year-long durations. “The interest rate will update yearly, and you can simply leave your line of credit open to refinance at the new rate.” According to their announcement blog. Lava’s line of credit functions more like a revolving account: users can borrow, repay, and borrow again at any time, with the interest rates only being marked for the amounts borrowed, not the total capacity of the loan.

“We believe that this is the best possible borrowing experience for bitcoin holders. You can get dollars instantly, you don’t have to worry about monthly payments or loan durations, and you get access to the lowest fixed interest rates,” said CEO Shehzan Maredia, adding, “This has been their most requested product and will be Lava’s core focus moving forward.”

Beyond the 5% fixed interest rate, the line of credit carries “a capital charge equal to 2% of the largest outstanding balance you have on your line of credit during the year,” as explained in their FAQ. For example, if the user’s loan balance reaches $5,000 at some point throughout the borrowing period, the capital charge for the entire year is $100. Bringing the total cost of a bitcoin-backed loan to roughly 7% yearly, a rate that remains very competitive within the bitcoin-backed loans market, as many companies also have similar fees on top of the interest rate.

Loans can be up to 50% of the total USD value of the bitcoin balance of the Lava app, a powerful and modern closed-source self-custody wallet. Most of the loan products and USD payment rails can be accessed without personal information, making Lava stand out among its competitors, placing it somewhere between pure DeFi and more modern crypto-savvy financial institutions. Lava also has a “Liquidation protection” feature, which can draw from the bitcoin balance deposited into the app and add it to the collateral account to protect users from liquidation in the case of extreme price volatility in bitcoin.

Lava Raises $200M for Bitcoin-Backed Line of Credit, Announces New Borrow Rates Starting at 5%

Ripple has rolled out digital asset spot prime brokerage capabilities in the US market.

The new launch follows an announcement in late October that it had officially acquired the non-bank prime broker Hidden Road.

Ripple combined Hidden Road’s services into its financial platform Ripple Prime, which aims to give institutions access to clearing, financing and trading in FX, digital assets, derivatives, swaps, and fixed income, all under one roof.

Ripple says its Prime clients in the US can now cross-margin over-the-counter (OTC) spot transactions and holdings with the rest of their digital asset portfolios.

The payments firm first announced its intent to acquire Hidden Road in April, and it said last month that Ripple Prime’s business has surged by 3x since that initial announcement.

Ripple also says its institutional platform will expand the reach of its stablecoin, RLUSD, by using the asset as collateral for prime brokerage products. The financial services giant BNY Mellon is poised to become the stablecoin’s primary reserve custodian.

The Hidden Road acquisition marks Ripple’s fifth major buy in two years, including GTreasury for treasury management last week, Rail’s $200 million stablecoin payments platform in August 2025, Standard Custody in June 2024 and the digital asset custody infrastructure firm Metaco in May 2023.

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Ripple Officially Rolls Out New Digital Asset Prime Brokerage in the US Following Hidden Road Acquisition

Strive (ASST), a Nasdaq-listed asset manager with a bitcoin BTC $ 107,661.53 treasury strategy, announced plans Monday an initial public offering of a new class of preferred shares designed to pay dividends.

The Series A Variable Rate Perpetual Preferred Stock, dubbed SATA, aims to pay an initial 12% annual dividend, paid monthly in cash. The company set to offer 1.25 million SATA to investors, raising funds to acquire more BTC and expand its operations, while proceeds may also go toward income-generating assets, working capital or repurchasing common stock. Strive currently holds just under 6,000 BTC, valued at roughly $637 million at current prices, an amount that will rise to roughly 11,000 coins should it complete its all-stock merger with Semler Scientific (SMLR).

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A nearly unrelenting sell-off in its common stock since completing a SPAC deal several weeks ago, has left Strive trading at a discount to the value of the bitcoin on its balance sheet (an mNAV of below 1). Thus, issuing common stock for continued bitcoin purchases would be highly dilutive to existing shareholders.

The move to instead issue preferred stock follows the footsteps of pioneering bitcoin treasury firm Strategy, which began issuing various classes of preferred shares to broaden its options to raise capital for BTC purchases.

Again in a nod to Saylor and team. Strive said it plans to maintain SATA’s trading range between $95 and $105 per share by adjusting dividend rates within set limits. If dividends go unpaid, the rate compounds monthly, eventually reaching up to 20% annually, per the press release.

Barclays and Cantor Fitzgerald will act as joint book-runners for the offering, with Clear Street as co-manager. A $12 per share dividend reserve will be set aside to cover the first year of distributions.

ASST shares are lower by 2.3% on Monday alongside a 4% slide in the price of bitcoin to $106,000. SMLR is down 2.5%.

The offering comes as digital asset treasury stocks crumbled over the past months, many now trading below the value of the underlying holdings, limiting their ability to raise fresh funds to continue their crypto purchases.

Bitcoin (BTC) Treasury News: Strive (ASST) to Offer High-Yield Preferred Stock SATA

Donut Labs has raised $15 million in seed funding as it builds what it calls "an AI quant inside a browser."

The funding came from investors such as BITKRAFT, Makers Fund, Sky9 Capital, Altos Ventures and Hack VC, alongside contributors from Solana, Sui and Monad ecosystems, according to an emailed announcement on Monday.

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The seed round comes less than six months after Donut Labs raised $7 million in pre-seed funding

Led by CEO Chris Zhu, Donut Browser said it aims to transform how users interact with the financial internet by embedding autonomous trading agents directly into the browsing experience. These agents analyze markets, calculate risk and execute onchain trades — even while users are offline.

The potential intersection of AI agents and blockchain technology is seen as a game changer by some observers in the crypto industry. Using smart contracts, self custody and bridging different chains may be complex for humans, but an AI agent could be customized specifically to thrive in such an environment.

Donut, which has amassed more than 160,000 users on its waitlist, plans to use the funding to develop a monetizable agentic browser capable of orchestrating real-time market intelligence and automated execution.

Donut’s rise comes amid surging decentralized trading volumes, with DeFi derivatives surpassing $1 trillion in monthly activity. Zhu said Donut is "redefining trading as something as natural as typing — a browser where your AI quant works for you, 24/7."

Donut Labs Raises $15M Seed Funding to Build AI-Powered Crypto Trading Browser

Kite, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered payments blockchain, rolled out its native token on Monday, generating significant trading volume on South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb.

The token debuted with strong market activity on the whole, reaching a $159 million market capitalization and an $883 million fully diluted valuation (FDV) within its first few hours of trading, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

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Trading volume on Binance topped $85 million with a similar figure being achieved on Upbit and Bithumb, total volume stood at $263 million at press time.

The launch follows Kite’s $18 million Series A raise in September, which brought its total funding to $33 million. The round was aimed at accelerating the development of Kite’s base layer for AI-driven payments and autonomous agent systems.

Kite’s native token underpins its "agentic economy, serving as the medium for payments, staking, and governance across its blockchain network. It enables machine-to-machine and agent-to-agent transactions, allowing autonomous AI agents to execute payments, access data, and purchase compute resources.

Total supply of the token is capped at 10 billion, with 48% being allocated to the community, 12% to investors and 20% to the team and early contributors, according to Kite's whitepaper.

KITE News: Token Debuts at $883M FDV on Significant Volume

Nasdaq-listed Tharimmune (THAR) has raised about $540 million in a private placement led by DRW and Liberty City Ventures, as the biotech firm pivots toward a digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy centered on canton coin (CC), the company said in a press release Monday.

THAR is up roughly 30% on the announcement. The thinly-traded canton coin, the utility token powering the Canton Network, a blockchain designed for institutional finance, is lower by 4%.

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The round also drew participation from a wide range of crypto-native and traditional finance players, including ARK Invest, Bitwave, Broadridge, Clear Street, Copper, Digital Asset, Kaiko, Kenetic, Kraken, Lukka, Polychain Capital, Proof Group, SBI Group, and Tradeweb Markets, among others.

The Canton Foundation, which governs the Canton Network, also joined the round, marking Tharimmune as the first publicly traded company directly supported by the Foundation.

The company expects to close the deal around Nov. 6, pending customary conditions. Proceeds will fund the acquisition of canton coin, operational costs, and a plan to run multiple validator nodes on the Canton Network to earn CC rewards.

The Canton Network, backed by major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, DTCC, and BNP Paribas, aims to connect traditional financial infrastructure via interoperable smart contracts. The network reportedly processes more than 500,000 daily transactions, signaling growing institutional adoption.

Tharimmune’s biotech operations will continue under its existing team, but the firm appointed Mark Wendland as CEO to lead the treasury initiative and Mark Toomey as president.

Clear Street acted as the sole placement agent and financial advisor for the offering.

Read more: Canton Network Activity Surges as Exchanges Join Validators: Copper Research

Tharimmune Raises $540M to Build Canton Coin Treasury Strategy

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the Ethereum-centric treasury firm led by Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee, bought 82,353 ether ETH $ 3,729.02 through last week, worth roughly $306 million at early Monday prices, lifting its total holdings to 3.4 million tokens, the company reported on Monday.

BMNR is lower by 5.7% in early Monday trading alongside a sizable late weekend and Monday drop in the crypto prices, with ETH lower by 3.5% over the past 24 hours to $3,715.

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The company said it also boosted its unencumbered cash holdings to $389 million, up from $305 million a week ago. The combined value of BitMine’s crypto, cash and equity stakes now totals $13.7 billion, according to the press release, including a $62 million position in Eightco Holdings and a 192 bitcoin in total.

The move brings BitMine’s share of the ETH supply to 2.8%, worth roughly $13.3 billion at current prices as part of a long-term strategy to acquire 5% of the token’s supply.

"We’re now more than halfway to our goal," said Lee in a statement.

The acquisition happened while many digital asset treasuries saw their share prices plummet over the past few months, struggling to raise cash and pursue their mandate to accumulate cryptocurrencies. Some entities, such as ETHZilla and Brazil’s OranjeBTC, pivoted to buy back shares as their stock price fell below the net asset value of their underlying holdings.

Ethereum Treasury News: BitMine (BMNR) Adds 82,353 ETH

Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin BTC $ 107,661.53, reported on Monday it purchased $45.6 million in BTC through last week, bringing its stash to 641,205 coins worth over $69 billion.

According to the firm's filing, the company acquired 397 BTC at an average price of $114,771 last week. Strategy funded the purchase mostly via the sale of common stock, though small amounts of the company's various preferred shares were also issued. A late weekend and Monday morning slide has the price of bitcoin trading below $108,000 at press time.

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Alongside its third quarter earnings report late last week, Strategy issued guidance that it would not raise money through common stock sales when its enterprise value was less than 2.5 times the value of the bitcoin on its balance sheet (the so-called mNAV).

The unrelenting slide in MSTR's share price in recent months, though, has left its mNAV at barely more than 1x, so its highly likely that any more share sales — and thus sizable bitcoin buys — are off the table for the foreseeable future.

MSTR is lower by 1.7% in premarket trading.

Read more: Strategy Eyes Global Credit Expansion With Focus on International Markets

Strategy (MSTR) News: 97 BTC Added, Bringing Holdings to Over 641K Coins

Standard Money, developer of the BNB Chain-based stablecoin USDsd, has raised $8 million from an array of crypto investment heavyweights.

The strategic investment round was led by Yzi Labs and included participation from Gate.io, Crypto.com, and Animoca Brands, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday.

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USDsd is a yield-seeking algorithmic stablecoin based on the Tether's USDT, the world's largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

The funds raised will support Standard Money's mainnet rollout and expand its liquidity partnerships and global operations, according to Monday's announcement.

Algorithmic stablecoins are tokens designed to maintain their peg to the applicable asset using smart contracts and economic incentives in order to manage the circulating supply.

For many observers, this type of token evokes memories of the Terra-Luna ecosystem's collapse in 2022, prompted by its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) token losing its peg to the U.S. dollar.

The recent proliferation of the stablecoin sector may have prompted some investors and crypto companies to revisit the concept of algorithmic stablecoins, as per Standard Money's backing by such noted digital asset heavyweights in this funding round.

Radix's New $10 Million Ecosystem Fund Is Paving the Way for DeFi's Mass Adoption

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