The Daily: Trumps tease DeFi, Grayscale launches Sui and Bittensor trusts, Andrena raises $18 million and more

Trump's sons' 'huge' DeFi announcement

• "We're about to shake up the crypto world with something HUGE. Decentralized finance is the future, don’t get left behind," Donald Trump Jr. posted to X early Wednesday, including the hashtag "BeDeFiant."
• That followed a post on Tuesday by his brother Eric Trump. "I have truly fallen in love with crypto/DeFi," he wrote. "Stay tuned for a big announcement."
• The announcement in question appears to be linked to trademark filings for the term "World Liberty," The Block found.
• The announcement's only hint was a connection to Zach and Steve Witkoff, with the latter a real estate mogul and Trump associate who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
• Steve Witkoff shared a message using the same "BeDeFiant" hashtag a day before Donald Trump Jr.'s post, which Zach then reposted.
• The Witkoffs follow Chase Hero, a crypto entrepreneur and managing partner of Subify, a competitor to OnlyFans. Subify counts YouTuber and crypto investor Logan Paul among its clients, who also interviewed Hero on his Impaulsive podcast.
• Notably, in July, AMG Software Solutions filed trademark applications for the terms "Be DeFiant," "World Liberty" and "World Liberty Financial" for "providing financial information in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi)."
• The home address for AMG Software Solutions is the same as for Subify. 
• Disgraced former pharma executive Martin Shkreli, who previously said he was involved in the Trump-themed memecoin DJT, claimed that the "new Trump project" includes both Steve Witkoff and Zak Folkman, who is listed as a co-founder of Subify.
• Therefore, although the project's specifics remain unclear, it seems to be associated with Hero and his trademark filings for World Liberty.

Grayscale launches Sui and Bittensor trusts

• The Bittensor Trust invests in the decentralized AI project's native token, TAO.
• The Sui Trust focuses solely on the Layer 1 smart contract blockchain protocol's SUI token.
• The new trusts increase Grayscale's total crypto investment products to 18, including those related to Solana, Litecoin, Stellar, Zcash, Chainlink and Decentraland.
• Grayscale also recently launched trusts for Near and Stacks in May.

Solana-based DePIN project Andrena raises $18 million

• The funding round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and ParaFi, structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants.
• The Series A extension round brings the project's total funding to $38 million, Andrena co-founder Neil Chatterjee told The Block, declining to comment on valuation or whether any investors have taken board seats.
• DAWN aims to decentralize internet services by allowing users to generate and sell their own bandwidth. At launch, it covered over 3 million U.S. households, with plans to expand globally to Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Ethena expands access to USDe with Solana integration, SOL added as backing asset

• The company said it "is confident that this integration [with Solana] will significantly increase the adoption of USDe and sUSDe."
• Ethena also added SOL as a backing asset for its "synthetic dollar," which currently has a market capitalization of over $3 billion, according to The Block's USDe Price Page.
• "In addition to increasing the strength and security of USDe's backing, this will unlock $2 to $3 billion in additional open interest in the SOL futures market, allowing USDe to continue scaling," Ethena Labs claimed.
• USDe uses derivative hedging strategies and an arbitrage system for minting and redeeming to sustain its dollar peg, differentiating it from traditional fiat-backed stablecoins like USDT and USDC.

Memecoins lead crypto rebound

• Dogwifhat increased by 26%, Popcat gained 35% and Michi rose by 30%.
• A misspelled Solana-based memecoin, Tem Walz, briefly surged to a market cap of nearly $1 million following Kamala Harris' announcement of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate but then plunged to less than $254,000 within hours.
• Amid Tuesday's volatility, Donald Trump-themed memecoin, DJT, also plummeted over 90% after a single wallet sold $2 million worth of the token in one transaction.

In the next 24 hours

U.S. jobless claims data are due at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.

U.S. FOMC member Thomas Barkin will speak at 3 p.m.

Asia Blockchain Summit 2024 concludes in Taiwan.