Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

Trading platform eToro agreed to acquire U.S.-focused online brokerage TradeZero for up to $231 million in cash and newly issued Class A shares. The transaction gives eToro established broker-dealer infrastructure and proprietary trading tools in the United States and Canada, accelerating its push into North American retail stock trading. The deal is structured to use cash and up to 2.5 million Class A shares, and is expected to close in the first half of 2027 pending regulatory approvals. The acquisition lands as eToro navigates a sharp pullback in digital assets, reporting a second-quarter crypto trading loss of $7.2 million and a 30% drop in cryptoasset revenue to $1.35 billion. July crypto trades on the platform fell 73% year-over-year to 1.4 million, while the average amount invested per trade halved to $182. Stronger equity and commodity activity cushioned the blow, lifting overall second-quarter net contribution 9% to $229 million and driving adjusted diluted earnings per share to $0.68, beating analyst expectations. TradeZero generated roughly $80 million in revenue over the twelve months ended June 30, and eToro expects the purchase to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in its first year post-close.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has reaffirmed its push to expand de novo bank charters, accelerating the entry of digital asset firms into the federal banking system. Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould stated that companies engaged in legally permissible activities, including digital assets, should have a clear path to becoming national banks. The regulator has received roughly 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, ruling on many within 120 days of receiving complete documentation. Ripple, Circle, Crypto.com, and Paxos have received conditional approval for national trust bank charters, while Coinbase's application remains under review. Erebor Bank, backed by Palmer Luckey, Joe Lonsdale, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, recently received final approval as a full-service national bank, marking the first such opening in five years. Traditional banking lobbies have pushed back against the expansion, with the Independent Community Bankers of America urging the OCC to reject Coinbase's application in December, and the American Bankers Association asking for delayed reviews in February. Banks argue that token rewards offered by crypto firms could accelerate deposit outflows and threaten traditional deposit competitiveness.

More than three dozen cryptocurrency firms and developer funds are urging major artificial intelligence labs to grant open-source security researchers early access to their most powerful models. Organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the signatories argue that defenders protecting a trillion dollars of infrastructure are hampered by safety filters on public models and locked out of trusted-partner programs. Attackers face no such constraints, using advanced systems to scan large codebases for vulnerabilities at unprecedented speeds. The signatories are asking for five specific measures, including early model access, computing budgets, secure testing environments, eligibility for independent maintainers, and direct lines to lab security teams. Recent exploits against BTCPay Server and Lightning nodes, which drained merchant funds before patches were issued, highlight the growing asymmetry between automated attackers and constrained defenders.