The Block

Quick Take Stablecoins are increasingly gaining traction, with major corporations launching their own, discussions about them at the highest levels of government — and, now, Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge. Analysts argue stablecoins legitimize public blockchains, providing investment opportunities in the form of public companies, an alternative to money market accounts, and value accruing to their underlying networks.

Quick Take Across Protocol has proposed capping its ACX token supply to one billion following criticism from LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino. Pellegrino flagged a function in the Across token contract that he claimed allowed the owner to burn ACX tokens from any wallet. The LayerZero Labs CEO also claimed the Across and UMA Protocol contracts can infinitely mint tokens.

Quick Take Karpatkey, an onchain treasury management solutions provider for DAOs, has closed a $7 million funding round. Karpatkey plans to expand services to more DAOs and extend outreach to traditional financial institutions.

Quick Take Sky founder Rune Christensen said the project would mull making brand changes, giving the community three options. Community members may contemplate reverting to its original brand identity following community feedback. The project will hold a community call this Friday to discuss the options set forth by Christensen.

Quick Take Nomura-backed Komainu announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Singapore-based custodian Propine, pending approval from the MAS. Komainu said that the acquisition is expected to strengthen its presence in Singapore.

Quick Take CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said he doesn’t expect Congress to act this year on crypto legislation during SIFMA’s annual meeting on Monday. Behnam also called on Congress to “weigh in” on election betting.

Quick Take The team behind Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Scroll announced it will distribute 7% of the new SCR token’s total supply in its first airdrop. Many users have taken to social media to vent their frustrations about the planned tokenomics.

Quick Take Infinex Founder Kain Warwick said World Liberty Financial’s poor performance was due to a shift in the meta away from token sales and into memecoins. Warwick also spoke of a “DeFi renaissance” and his vision of Infinex’s role in breaking down barriers for new crypto users.

This figure is up over 36% in the last two weeks.The following is an excerpt from The Block’s Data and Insights newsletter.

Quick Take Payments giant Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, according to TechCrunch founder and well-known venture capitalist Michael Arrington, expanding its integration with the space. Bitcoin ETF inflows, crypto equity markets and retail trading sentiment are “screaming” a risk-on environment, according to analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein. Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of Japan’s Democratic Party for the People (DPP), has proposed a plan to reduce tax rates