LMFA News & Events

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies see major legal, institutional, and technological developments, the financial landscape continues to adapt. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with the "Crypto Currents" weekly from The Fly. Also, join us for your essential daily recap, every day at 2 PM ET on FlyCast radio.ICE, OKX FORM U.S. CRYPTO JOINT VENTURE:Intercontinental Exchangeand OKX announced Monday thefocused on building next-generation infrastructure for tokenized and digitally native financial products. Subject to certain regulatory approvals, it is expected that the joint venture will operate as a U.S. registered broker dealer and FCM for the purpose of enabling OKX's customers in the U.S. and overseas to access ICE futures and NYSE tokenized equities markets. The 50-50 venture will also explore adjacent opportunities for regulatory-compliant blockchain-enabled markets. The joint venture will be co-chaired by ICE and Governor Andrew Cuomo."The ICE-OKX joint venture is a step towards building the infrastructure that will define how global markets operate in the decades ahead," said Trabue Bland, SVP, Futures Exchanges at ICE. "ICE's global benchmarks and regulated market technology have earned the trust of institutions and traders everywhere and now, through our partnership with OKX, we are working towards extending that reach to OKX's 120M retail traders."BITGO REDUCES WORKFORCE BY 15%:In a Thursday post on X, BitGoCEO Michael Belshe announced that theHe said, "I want to be straight with you about why. The ecosystem has evolved, and the way we build financial services has changed dramatically. To keep winning for our clients, we need to be sharper, more focused, and concentrate our people and energy on the areas that matter most: security, trading, stablecoins, settlement, and AI-powered infrastructure. Getting there means making BitGo more deliberate than it is today. This isn't an easy day. BitGo is built by people I respect and care about, many of whom bleed blue and have given everything to get us here. I'm truly grateful for all of your contributions, and I don't take saying goodbye lightly. By the time you read this message, everyone affected will already have heard directly from their manager and HR. To those of you who are leaving: thank you. You helped shape BitGo into what it is today, and the company will always be better because you were here. I wish you nothing but success ahead. To the team that remains: I know this is still hard. Be good to each other and overcommunicate as we reorganize. We have a clear, strong path forward, and this is a one-time action. We don't anticipate further reductions. I wouldn't make this call if I didn't believe deeply in our future. Let's go build it."The company also announced in a Monday regulatory filing that chief compliance officer Jeffrey Horowitz has retired. BitGo said Horowitz's decision to retire was not as a result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company's operations, policies, or practices.Additionally on Monday, BitGo announced plans to expand institutional access to certain third-party decentralized finance vault products and onchain lending-related opportunities through a new DeFi vault offering developed with third-party infrastructure providers and risk managers. Among the planned launch partners is Morpho, the decentralized lending infrastructure protocol supporting onchain lending markets.GALAXY INVESTS IN DIGITAL PRIME TECHNOLOGIES:Digital Prime Technologies announced Tuesdayfrom Galaxy Digital. The investment builds on Galaxy's existing relationship with Digital Prime Technologies as a launch participant on Tokenet, the institutional digital asset lending platform that went live in May 2026. Tokenet, developed in partnership with EquiLend, applies proven securities lending workflows, risk controls, and lifecycle management to digital assets, delivering the operational rigor required by institutional market participants. Digital Prime will use the investment to accelerate Tokenet's development and expand its institutional client base. EquiLend's global network continues to provide the distribution foundation for Tokenet to scale within the institutional lending community."The maturation of digital asset lending depends on infrastructure that institutions can trust from day one. Tokenet has been built with that bar in mind, and Galaxy's investment in Digital Prime is a reflection of our confidence in both the platform and the team behind it," said Max Bareiss, Head of Lending, Galaxy.Additionally on Wednesday, KWTX's Adam Schindler reported that Galaxy is planning a new data center project, "Project Merlin," in McGregor, Texas, after city council approval, involving multiple buildings across a 500-acre site northeast of SpaceXfacilities. The company said it will fund the required infrastructure and does not expect significant impact on local residents. In a presentation to the city, Galaxy described the development as a "$400M+" capital investment and said the project would create "30+" full-time jobs with an average annual salary of "$60K+."BRERA HOLDINGS BUYS 1,347 SOL:Brera Holdings, doing business as Solmate Infrastructure, announced Monday it had completed its second purchase of SOL tokens this month, as the company continues to execute on its commitment to grow its SOL holdings. Solmate Infrastructureon June 16, following the acquisition of 1,557 SOL on June 9. Both transactions were completed using the company's cash reserves.Additionally on Monday, RBCH, an over 10% shareholder of Brera, announced that it had filed a derivative lawsuit, on behalf of the company, against its current officers and directors, for claims of "breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder oppression, and related claims arising from a systematic pattern of self-dealing that has caused tens of millions of dollars in harm to the company and its shareholders." RBCH is the single largest outside shareholder of Brera, having committed $50M in the company's September 2025 $300M PIPE Transaction. RBCH said, "Since the investment, the company's officers and directors have used the investor capital to enrich themselves through a series of conflicted, and wasteful transactions, while simultaneously deploying defensive measures, including baseless claims against RBCH and other concerned parties, to entrench their positions and prevent shareholders from taking corrective action."On Wednesday, Brera responded to the lawsuit in a statement that read, in part, "We are currently engaged in a critical effort to protect the company and its shareholders from what we believe is a fraudulent campaign by the RockawayX Managing Partner and CEO, Viktor Fischer, aimed at exploiting the company and its assets for personal gain. What began as an attempt to extract approximately $200M from the company, as described in the company's lawsuit against Mr Fischer and his company RX, has evolved into a broader false attack that has negatively impacted market perception and contributed to a significant discount in the company's valuation. Mr Fischer, through RockawayX, raised $50M from his investors and invested in Solmate in an attempt to enrich himself by selling his company for $200M, a valuation based on misleading financial statements provided to Brera Holdings. Through diligence and professionalism, the Board identified the misleading information and protected shareholders by walking away from the transaction and filing a lawsuit in Delaware alleging fraud and intentional misrepresentation. Our priority is clear: defend the interests of all shareholders, safeguard the Company's assets, and ensure that corporate resources are used to create value for investors rather than serve individual interests."RBCH responded on Thursday, stating in part, "The allegations made by Brera against RockawayX in its June 24 statement are false, misleading, and a retaliatory response to the derivative lawsuit filed by RBCH just days prior. RockawayX disputes these allegations entirely and will defend itself vigorously through appropriate legal channels. Brera's statement yesterday fails to address any of the specific allegations contained in RBCH's derivative complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on June 22."ETHLABS LAUNCHES TO ACCELERATE ETHEREUM ADOPTION:A coordinated group of Ethereum ecosystem stewards announced Monday the launch offormed to ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption. The funding effort is led by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other key Ethereum ecosystem contributors including Anchorage, Octant and SNZ.Ethlabs said, "As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move onchain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy. Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale, advancing a faster Ethereum with trustworthy interoperability, so institutions building on Ethereum can do so with the neutrality, resilience, privacy and security they require. Cofounded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma, Ethlabs brings together researchers responsible for key contributions to finality, scaling, data availability, the virtual machine and protocol economics — the technologists who have guided the network through its most consequential upgrades over the past decade. This initiative gives that work a dedicated institutional home with stable, long-term funding."Bitmine also announced Monday that itsAs of June 21, the company's crypto holdings are comprised of 5,672,956 ETH, 205 BTC, an $180M stake in Beast Industries, an $104M stake in Eightco Holdingsand total cash and marketable securities of $601M. Bitmine's ETH holdings are 4.7% of the ETH supply.OTHER CRYPTO NEWS:StrategyacquiresStrivepurchases 759 bitcoin, reportsHyperscale Datareportsenters MSA for AI compute capacity in Michigan, receives utility 'will serve' determination in MontanaEightco Holdings reportsBTIG raises Core Scientificprice targetRiot Platformsprice target raised, Cipher Miningprice targetNakamotocloses legacy healthcare clinics amidCitizens initiates Mara Holdingswith, BitdeerwithCleanSparkwith, Keel InfrastructurewithHut 8initiated withprice target raised to $150 from $115 at BTIGLion GroupannouncesHyperion DeFipartners withCantonlaunchesLM Fundingexpands intoSUI GroupexpandsHive Digitalsignswith Swedish companyHeartSciences, Fortitude announcesCRYPTO STOCK PLAYS:Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital, Coinbase, Core Scientific, Greenidge Generation, Mara Holdings, Strategy, Riot Platforms and TeraWulf.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped roughly 6% this week to $59,067 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.

LM Funding announced a strategic expansion into high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company has ordered its initial AI GPU server hardware for this AI-HPC business expansion for deployment at its Oklahoma facility and is actively marketing its available power capacity at both of its facilities to qualified AI co-location and power hosting customers with additional capacity to follow as demand follows. The expansion leverages LM Funding's 26 megawatts of wholly-owned, operational power infrastructure, which was built in fifteen months, is operated without outside management, and is currently carrying average power costs of approximately $0.046 per kilowatt-hour.

"April marked a steady continuation of the operational profile we established in March, with production of 9.4 Bitcoin representing a slight sequential increase on a per-day basis," said Bruce Rodgers, chairman and CEO of LM Funding. "We enter the seasonally warmer months with momentum and infrastructure positioned to capture the elevated curtailment revenue opportunities historically available to our Oklahoma site."

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies see major legal, institutional, and technological developments, the financial landscape continues to adapt. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with the "Crypto Currents" weekly from The Fly. Also, join us for your essential daily recap, every day at 2 PM ET on FlyCast radio.CHARLES SCHWAB DETAILS SPOT CRYPTO TRADING LAUNCH:On Thursday, Charles Schwabannouncedoffer that will begin a phased rollout to retail clients in the coming weeks. Schwab Crypto will provide direct access to bitcoin and ethereum trading, combined with educational content and experienced professional support. At launch, Schwab Crypto will include direct trading in bitcoin and ethereum, in-depth digital assets education and resources, including insights and commentary from the Schwab Center for Financial Research and crypto-focused content through Schwab Coaching, as well as the ability to view and trade cryptocurrency and traditional investments side-by-side across Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile, and thinkorswim. It will also include access to Schwab's 24/7 support from thousands of tenured service professionals and will be priced among the lowest in the industry at 75 basis points on the dollar value of each trade. Over time, Schwab plans to add additional cryptocurrencies to the platform, as well as transfer capabilities for both deposits and withdrawals, allowing clients with existing digital asset investments to bring them to Schwab alongside their other investments."With Schwab Crypto, investors can access familiar cryptocurrencies within an all in one investing and banking experience, backed by an ecosystem of education, tools, resources, and support so they can make informed decisions about how crypto might fit into their broader investing goals," said Joe Vietri, Head of Digital Assets. "Whether you're new to crypto and looking for a firm you know and trust, or you already own digital assets, our goal is to be the destination of choice for retail investors who want to incorporate digital assets into their portfolios with confidence."ETORO ENTERS AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE ZENGA:eToroannounced Wednesday that it has entered intoa self-custodial crypto wallet provider, in a move that deepens eToro's digital asset capabilities and accelerates its strategy of connecting traditional finance with on-chain infrastructure and the crypto native economy. The acquisition brings together eToro's global multi-asset platform and distribution with Zengo's non-custodial wallet technology, supporting Zengo's next phase of growth while expanding eToro's digital asset capabilities. The transaction strengthens eToro's ability to support evolving digital asset use cases, including tokenized assets and emerging decentralized trading models such as prediction markets and perpetuals, as these markets develop.Yoni Assia, CEO, said, "We believe the future of finance will be increasingly digital, decentralized and user-controlled, with self-custody playing an important role in that evolution. Zengo has built an innovative and secure wallet experience, and this acquisition will enable us to accelerate its growth while continuing to provide users with choice in how they access digital assets. As we often say, crypto downtimes are the time to build and this acquisition reflects that long-term approach. At the same time, we continue to demonstrate the strength of our diversified business model. We've seen strong capital market activity so far this year, with commodity trading accounting for 60% of trading commissions by asset class in Q1 2026, with commodities trading volume nearly 4x higher year over year. This growth was driven by shifting global macro dynamics, our standing as a top-tier global multi-asset platform, and our strategic expansion of 24/7 trading, including gold and oil."On Thursday, eToro announced the relaunch of Tori, its AI investing companion, introducing three upgrades: persistent memory, real-time market sentiment from X powered by Grok 4.2, and the ability to create and manage user-defined AI-driven Agent Portfolios entirely through conversation.eToro also announced Tuesday the launch of the eToro App Store, a marketplace enabling investors and developers to build, share and access trading and analytics applications directly within the eToro platform.SEC APPROVES PLAN TO REMOVE DAY TRADING LIMITS:The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved changes to the pattern day trading rule, shifting from a fixed $25,000 threshold for small investors to risk-based margin requirements applied to all traders. Public feedback "overwhelmingly supported" the plan, which includes the "elimination of the $25,000 minimum equity requirements and definition of pattern day trader," SEC Assistant Secretary Sherry Haywood wrote in an order.Goldman Sachs noted the change and pointed out that as this likely reduces margin requirements for traders, which would allow more smaller-sized accounts to trade more actively, this could drive increased retail trading volumes in equities, which could benefit brokers under coverage, including Buy-rated Robinhoodand Interactive Brokersand Neutral-rated eToro. This could be particularly true for the former, which has smaller average account sizes and mostly U.S. exposure, whereas Interactive Brokers has larger average accounts, and eToro is predominantly non-U.S. exposed.Meanwhile, BernsteinThe firm has an Outperform rating on the name with a $130 price target. The upside will be driven by a recovery in crypto markets and "breakout" revenue growth in prediction markets, the analyst said. Bernstein believes a "weak" Q1 report is already priced into Robinhood shares. The market will be forward looking as trading volumes recover Q2 onwards, contended the firm.Additionally, Truist lowered the firm's price target on Robinhood to $100 from $120 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The firm updated its Robinhood model to incorporate trading data from February and March ahead of Q1 earnings. While shares have been under pressure year-to-date with revenue headwinds from crypto prices and high-beta equity volatility, shares have consolidated in recent months around $70, which the firm views as an attractive entry point for a platform poised to organically grow assets 20%+ annually for the next three years, the analyst said.CRYPTO COMPANIES SEEK MYTHOS ACCESS:Major crypto exchanges and custodians including Coinbaseand Binance are racing to prepare for powerful AI models like Anthropic's Mythos, which the AI company says could be dangerously good at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, The Information's Yueqi Yang reported Tuesday. Coinbase has been in "close communication" with Anthropic about Mythos, "a highly restricted model not available to the public," Coinbase Chief Security Officer Philip Martin said. "Mythos, and future models like it, will enable even deeper testing of software and systems at scale. This will accelerate digital threats as well as digital defense."Meanwhile, Piper Sandler raised the firm's price target on Coinbaseon the shares. Heading into Q1 earnings, the firm expects management teams to strike a positive tone on the outlook for trading volumes, especially in futures as the Iran War continues to impact global energy and commodities markets. Piper is somewhat cautious on the tough year-over-year comparisons facing exchanges in Q2, but a continuation of the Iran War is a strong counter.NORTHERN TRUST, DIGITAL ASSET PARTNER FOR CUSTODY CAPABILITIES:Northern Trustannounced Thursday it hasto support the development of custody capabilities for tokenized financial assets. This integration will advance Northern Trust's broader digital asset strategy as the firm continues to evolve its asset servicing model in response to changing market structures. As part of this agreement, Northern Trust will integrate with Canton Network's infrastructure to develop and deploy applications that bridge digital and traditional markets, supporting institutional grade custody and asset servicing workflows for network participants. This move also creates opportunities with other regulated partners and financial services utilities that provide services for digitally issued assets. Northern Trust will utilize its digital assets platform to support custody and asset servicing for tokenized assets issued or transacted on the network."As institutional adoption of digital assets progresses, clients are looking for custody and servicing models that align with established market standards and regulatory expectations," said Guy Gibson, co‑president, Asset Servicing and head of Institutional Banking and Markets. "Connecting to the Canton Network allows us to extend our asset servicing role into new market structures while maintaining the same principles of scale, control, and risk management that clients expect from Northern Trust."OTHER CRYPTO NEWS:Benchmark startsHoldingswith a BuyBitGo, tradias expandHyperscale DatareportsStrategyacquiresprice target raised to $385 from $350 at TD CowenBitmine ImmersionannouncesCanaanreportsTeraWulfreports preliminaryStrivepurchasesEmpery DigitalsellsBGIN BlockchainannouncesDeFi Technologiesprice target loweredat MaximLM FundingminesHigh Rollerteams with Crypto.com toVisalaunchesBitdeerproducesExodus Movementexpandsfiles lawsuit to compel W3C to complete saleSolunaacquiresfor $16.5MLQR Houseto acquireCypherpunk TechnologiesincreasesMorpheus Research saysTechnology, 'short position justified'CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS:Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital, Coinbase, Core Scientific, Greenidge Generation, Mara Holdings, Strategy, Riot Platformsand TeraWulf.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin rose roughly 6% this week to $77,225 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.