Ethereum Leads Crypto As Tron (Almost) Seduces Trump To Go Public
Eric Trump denies being involved in a TRON treasury company after shares surged 900%
Bitcoin and Ethereum are continuing to shrug off mounting tensions in the Middle East during a busy week that includes a Fed rate decision and a key vote in the Senate on the GENIUS Act to codify stablecoins.
Continue reading for one analyst’s favorite $ETH play. Plus, Coinbase catches strays for sponsoring Trump’s big military parade, while Eric Trump distances himself from a TRON treasury reverse merger.
As always, Coinage is on the lookout for all the top stories in crypto (covered here in video form.) Let’s dig in…
Ethereum Treasury Company Surges
It’s been a rocky week for the most popular publicly-traded Ethereum treasury company — but today is a good day. Shares in Sharplink Gaming are surging… sharply (up 50% on Monday.)
On Friday, we flagged the love that the stock received in a new note issued by Fundstrat — noting that the premium to the ETH the company holds had fallen to just 1.6x its net-asset value. That compares favorably to the 1.9x premium that Saylor’s Bitcoin-levered company Strategy trades with.
“We believe [$SBET] offers intriguing upside at these prices,” wrote Fundstrat’s Sean Farrell. The 50% pop since the note came out seems to be proving those analysts right. But if you believe ETH is just getting started, Sharplink looks like it has room to run.
Interestingly, the ETH:BTC chart shows ETH has actually still been defying the trend. Perhaps the break higher is really here.
Eric Trump Denies TRON Reverse Merger Play
As Ethereum and other crypto projects continue to employ the strategy of boasting publicly-traded treasury companies, it looked like TRON was next in line. The Financial Times reported that TRON Founder Justin Sun was working with Eric Trump to convert Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment into a TRON treasury company.
After shares popped more than 900%, Eric Trump denied being involved in the plans.
Nonetheless, the whole ordeal sparked enough controversy among those in crypto circles, considering the SEC had opened an investigation into Sun and Tron, which was later wound down after Trump was sworn into office. Interestingly, Sun is also one of the largest holders of the President’s TRUMP memecoin — and has invested heavily into the Trump’s DeFi project, World Liberty Financial:
Sun has also poured $75mn into World Liberty Financial, a Trump family crypto company from which the president has derived income of $57mn. World Liberty last week issued its first stablecoins, a type of digital dollar, on the Tron blockchain founded by Sun.
Coinbase Sponsors Trump’s Parade
Coinbase also found itself landed in controversy this weekend, after sponsoring the U.S. military parade put on by Trump. It may not have been so controversial if this weren’t crypto — a space usually fervently libertarian or anti-government.
The parade was also sponsored by intelligence company Palantir, which makes more sense. But crypto Twitter was riddled with examples of people being confused, or let down with Coinbase opting to back a military parade:
Solana ETFs Heating Up
CoinShares was the latest to file for a Solana ETF today, joining seven other issuers who all have applications in with the SEC.
The team at Bloomberg has noted that odds of the SEC approving Solana ETFs have continued to rise (now at 90% before the end of the year) especially after the agency asked issuers to update their filings. With that in mind, it could just be a matter of weeks before we see one (or most likely all) of them approved.
When we chatted with Matt Sigel, from VanEck — the first issuer to file a Solana ETF last year — it seemed more a matter of when than if, at this point. The question now becomes whether it will be a Bitcoin-like ETF class launch, or an Ethereum-like class launch.
Coming up…
Tuesday: The big GENIUS Stablecoin Act gets its vote in the Senate. The bill has had a tougher road to getting passed than many expected (given Trump’s new crypto endeavors) but nonetheless, the road seems to be more or less cleared for takeoff. Fitting, then, to see JPMorgan file yesterday for its own JPMD stablecoin trademark with the USPTO.
Wednesday: Fed Chair Jay Powell is expected to keep interest rates where they are. The Fed Chair will provide his updated takes on inflation and the job market and lay out what the rest of the year could look like on the monetary front.
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