The Protocol: Crypto Fundraising, Job Losses, Juicy Payouts, Grants for Devs In this week’s issue of The Protocol, our newsletter on blockchain tech, we’re covering the Optimism’s $42.5M token pledge to Kraken, crypto VC funding, grants for Bitcoin open-source developers, and Polymarket’s (negligible) impact on Polygon’s bottom line.

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy Plans to Raise $42B to Buy More Bitcoin Over Next 3 Years

FTX’s Nishad Singh Gets No Prison Time for Role in Crypto Exchange Collapse Singh is the fourth FTX executive to be sentenced for his role in the fraud.

Coinbase Shares Slump After Big Q3 Earnings Miss on ‘Softer’ Market Condition

U.S. Treasury Advisory Panel Says Tokenization Could Be Big, But May Need Central Control The U.S. Treasury Department’s panel of Wall Street advisers see the tokenization of U.S. debt and other assets providing some significant potential advances, the group contended in a new report – while also envisioning an inevitable need for the kind of heavy central hand that may rankle the crypto sector.

MyTrade Head First to Plead Guilty Among Group of Firms Accused of Gaming Markets The U.S. Department of Justice said it secured a guilty plea from the operator of crypto “market maker” MyTrade, which was one target in a wide-ranging sting that brought manipulation charges to multiple firms and individuals earlier this month.

Degens Are Searching for Further Leverage on MicroStrategy and Winning Massively The T-REX 2X long MSTR Daily Target ETF (MSTU) has rallied 235% since its introduction six weeks ago, an annualized equivalent return of 57,000%, according to Bloomberg analysis.

Opportunities for Blockchains and Digital Assets to Support and Enhance U.S. National Security With regulatory certainty, the national security benefits of digital assets and blockchain technology will grow exponentially, say four national security experts.

Institutional Investors Position for Bitcoin Volatility Into the U.S. Election Some $350 million notional value of November call options traded on CME with a breakeven bitcoin price of nearly $80,000, anticipating a rally next month, one analyst noted.

How Public Blockchains Will Catalyze Institutional DeFi Adoption Public blockchains — with their open architecture and unrestricted participation — are set to drive the next wave of financial innovation just as the internet did for communication and commerce, says Markus Infanger.

From Existential to Irrelevance Risk The crypto industry faces the next big risk on the way to a maturing asset class: irrelevance, says Ilan Solot.

Ether Gains 2.5%, Outperforming BTC and Maybe Primed for More Upside Ether {{ETH}} is primed for a period of upside price action after underperforming against bitcoin {{BTC}} in recent weeks. Skeptics have claimed that the emergence of layer-2 networks has seen Ethereum fall out of favor among DeFi traders, but the data tells a different story.

Inspired by Trump, Florida Official Eyes State Bitcoin Stockpile for Retirees Florida’s chief financial officer proposed that the funds that support retired state workers should dabble in crypto, inspired by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s support for the U.S. government stockpiling bitcoin {{BTC}}.

Venn Network Aims to Solve DeFi’s Hacking Problem With More Decentralized Tech Creator Or Dadosh says Venn creates a “completely new economy” for crypto security.

Making Crypto Tokens Useful and Fair Instead of parsing the Howey test, founders should prioritize making tokens useful and fair, say Jake Chervinsky and Rebecca Rettig.

Fortune Claims Polymarket Is ‘Rife’ With Wash Trading As much as a third of the prediction market’s volume is inflated by traders buying and selling the same shares repeatedly, Fortune reported, citing blockchain researchers. They could be doing it to farm a future airdropped token.

Leading Bitcoin Layer 2 Picks Optimism’s Red-Hot Superchain to Link to Ethereum’ BOB’s aim is to create bridges between itself and layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, with the ultimate goal of making Bitcoin the center of DeFi. Its decision adds to the critical mass of blockchain developers choosing to build on Optimism’s OP Stack.

Coinbase, Visa to Allow Real-Time Crypto Deposits Through Debit Card Customers of payments giant Visa can now integrate their eligible debit card into their Coinbase accounts and deposit funds, at times instantly, the two firms announced on Tuesday.

Crypto-Backed Cloud-Storage Platform Storj Promotes Colby Winegar to CEO Winegar previously served as the company’s chief revenue office for a number of years.

Privacy Blockchain Project Nillion Raises $25M to Expand ‘Blind Computing’ Nillion builds its service around the concept of “blind computing,” the processing of data without having to reveal its contents.