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Good Morning,
Wall Street’s crypto rails keep getting wider. Coinbase’s push for regulated equity perpetuals lands right as Hyperliquid eyes a US entry through Kraken, signaling that 24/7 derivatives trading is becoming the next front in crypto’s fight for legitimacy.
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In Today’s Email:
**What Matters:Coinbase Seeks Equity Perpetuals Approval 👀Founders Highlight:David Lighton of Diameter Pay 👨Deal Flows:**Trump Jr.’s Firm Leads Polymarket Round 💰️
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WHAT MATTERS
**State of play: **Coinbase filed a notice registration with the SEC this week seeking approval to list 24/7 equity perpetual contracts for US investors.
Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said equity perps have proven international demand and called it a potential regulated path for US investors.
Coinbase will also need CFTC sign-off; it already runs non-US equity perpetuals launched in March on stocks like Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Amazon.
The CFTC greenlit bitcoin perpetual futures for Coinbase and KalshiEX in May, then opened comment on crude oil perpetuals and 24/7 trading in June.
Hyperliquid has drawn regulatory attention after President Trump said the CFTC was working to bring it into the US in a compliant fashion.
Hyperliquid Labs is reportedly in talks with Kraken parent Payward about a US market entry via a perpetual futures deal.
**Why it matters: **A US regulated venue for equity perpetuals would pull a large, currently offshore market onshore under SEC and CFTC oversight, legitimizing a product type most US investors can only access through unregulated platforms today.
Our take: Coinbase is racing to lock in first-mover status before rivals like Hyperliquid find their own onshore path, and the dual SEC-CFTC filing shows how much regulatory coordination this product still needs before it goes live.
**For builders and investors: **Watch the CFTC’s next move closely. It is the real gating step, and its comment period on crude oil perpetuals and 24/7 trading may signal how fast other perpetual products could follow equities onshore.
BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT
**Intro: **David Lighton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Diameter Pay, a company that provides compliance-first payment infrastructure, bridging traditional US dollar banking systems with stablecoin rails for banks and financial institutions
**Previous background: **Before Diameter Pay, David spent years in international development finance, including roles at the World Bank’s Haiti Desk and the IFC, alongside entrepreneurship fellowships at MIT and Techstars.
**The big idea: **David wants to build a compliance-first financial bridge between traditional banking infrastructure and digital currency networks (like stablecoins).
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INSIGHTS
Bitcoin’s 90-day correlation with gold reached its highest level since 2020 during the latest US bond market selloff, according to Bitwise data.
Bitcoin rose 22.4% in a week, its biggest weekly gain since March 2024, while gold added about 5% and stocks fell as Treasury yields climbed.
Bitwise’s André Dragosch said bitcoin is trading like an amplified version of gold as investors hedge against currency debasement risk.
Glassnode noted bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 fell toward zero in August, but called similar decorrelations during bond selloffs historically short-lived.
Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas said bitcoin’s correlation to US stocks has stayed near its historical 0.40 average, with gold and Treasurys becoming more correlated instead.
Bitcoin pulled back to around $77,600 after clearing $80,000, with spot ETFs pulling in an average of $290M a day at the rally’s peak.
DEAL FLOWS
*Deal flows soared this week - we saw $500M+ in deals 💼 *
Donald Trump Jr.’s venture firm 1789 Capital is leading a new $1B funding round that values Polymarket at $21B, up from $15B.
1789 Capital will invest around $300M in the new round, adding to the roughly $200M it previously put into Polymarket.
Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi have surged in popularity over the past year as CFTC oversight of the industry has grown friendlier.
Trump Jr. also advises Kalshi and received shares worth more than $300,000 there, deepening his family’s financial ties to the sector.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig, a Trump appointee, has sued states trying to regulate prediction markets and publicly backed the industry’s growth.
1789 Capital now manages more than $3B, up from a few hundred million two years ago, with stakes in firms like SpaceX and Anduril.
Deal flows in the past week:
Catapult Trade, $500,000 Seed Round
Firelight, $8M Seed Round
Felix Pago, $200M Series C Round
DAC Quantum Chain, $1M Strategic Round
GAEA, $3.6M Strategic Round
Ajaib Group, $270M Strategic Round
MemeBitcoin, $8M Strategic Round
Catapult Trade, $3.6M Public Token Sale Round
Umia, $6.1M Public Token Sale Round
Catapult Trade, $2.1M Private Round
Catapult Trade, $400,000 KOL Round
QUICK BITES
Crypto market capsurgesto $2.82T.CoinbaseseeksSEC greenlight to list 24/7 equity perpetuals.CFTC filesto dismissCME’s lawsuit over crypto perpetual futures.Kraken parent PaywarddelaysIPO to second quarter of 2027 at earliest.Michigan courtordersKalshi to keep blocking sports prediction markets.DOJsaysHamas crypto seizures reached $560K as FBI took over fundraising sites.Strive CEOsayscompany could end 2026 as second-largest public bitcoin holder.
NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME
TokenLogic’s𝕏readon Rebalancing GHO for Growth.a16z’s𝕏readon What financial markets need from blockchains.RWA Foundation’s𝕏readon Tokenized Assets Report With Token Terminal.
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