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Trump to Tap Former CFTC Commissioner, a16z Policy Head Brian Quintenz for CFTC Head

Brian Quintenz, a one-time commissioner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Andreessen Horowitz’s head of policy, will be Donald Trump’s choice to run the federal commodities regulator.
Quintenz previously served in the regulator between 2017 and 2021, where he organized the Technology Advisory Committee. During his time as commissioner, he said a self-regulatory organization specific to the crypto industry could help oversee companies.
Since leaving the agency, he joined a16z, where he became the head of policy. A16z was one of the major funders of Fairshake, a crypto-focused political action committee which poured close to $140 million into the 2024 election.
Punchbowl News first reported the nomination.
In a statement, Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham said, «I congratulate my friend Brian Quintenz on his selection for CFTC Chairman. I worked with Brian on important initiatives that he led to success when he was a CFTC Commissioner. He will do the same for crypto and innovation. I look forward to supporting Brian and his leadership at the CFTC.»
Industry groups likewise supported the nomination after news of it spread. Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, a lobbying group, said the organization looked forward to working with him.
«Brian has a long track record of supporting DeFi and advocating for sound policies that will enable DeFi developers and users to thrive in the United States,» he said in a statement.
In recent years, the industry and Congress have pushed toward giving the CFTC greater oversight of the industry.
Former CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam advocated for making the agency a primary market regulator for at least parts of the industry, including overseeing spot Bitcoin markets.
A bill, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, would have given the CFTC greater authority over crypto policy. The House passed it last year, but it did not go through the Senate.
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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 2.5% as Nearly All Constituents Decline

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 4248.74, down 2.5% (-109.09) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
One of 20 assets is trading higher.
Leaders: AVAX (+0.6%) and BCH (-0.8%).
Laggards: UNI (-9.9%) and LINK (-7.0%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
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Pantera-Backed Solana Treasury Firm Helius Raises $500M, Stock Soars Over 200%

Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT) announced on Monday it’s raising more than $500 million in a private financing round to create a Solana-focused treasury company.
The vehicle will hold SOL, the native token of the Solana blockchain, as its reserve asset and aims to expand to more than $1.25 billion via stock warrants tied to the deal, the press release said.
The financing was led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital, with participation from investors including Animoca Brands, FalconX and HashKey Capital.
Shares of the firm rallied over 200% above $24 in pre-market trading following the announcement. Solana was down 4% over the past 24 hours.
The firm is joining the latest wave of new digital asset treasuries, or DATs, with public companies pivoting to raise funds and buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or SOL.
Helius is set to rival with the recently launched Forward Industries (FORD) with a $1.65 billion war chest backed by Galaxy Digital and others. That firm confirmed on Monday that has already purchased 6.8 million tokens for roughly $1.58 billion last week.
Helius’ plan is to use Solana’s yield-bearing design to generate income on the holdings, earning staking rewards of around 7% as well as deploying tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi) and lending opportunities. Incoming executive chairman Joseph Chee, founder of Summer Capital and a former UBS banker, will lead the firm’s digital asset strategy alongside Pantera’s Cosmo Jiang and Dan Morehead.
«As a pioneer in the digital asset treasury space, having participated in the formation of the strategy at Twenty One Capital (CEP) with Tether, Softbank and Cantor, Bitmine (BMNR) with Tom Lee and Mozayyx as well as EightCo (OCTO) with Dan Ives and Sam Altman, we have built the expertise to set up the pre-eminent Solana treasury vehicle,» Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in a statement.
«There is a real opportunity to drive the flywheel of creating shareholder value that Michael Saylor has pioneered with Strategy by accelerating Solana adoption,» he added.
Read more: Solana Surges as Galaxy Scoops Up Over $700M Tokens From Exchanges
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American Express Introduces Blockchain-Based ‘Travel Stamps’

American Express has introduced Ethereum-based ‘travel stamps’ to create a commemorative record of travel experiences, as part of the firm’s revamped travel app.
The travel experience tokens, which are technically NFTs (ERC 721 tokens), are minted and stored on Coinbase’s Base network, said Colin Marlowe , VP, Emerging Partnerships at Amex Digital Labs.
The travel stamps, which can be collected anytime a traveler uses their card, are not tradable NTF tokens, Marlowe explained, and neither do they function like blockchain-based loyalty points – at least for the time being.
“It’s a valueless ERC-721, so technically an NFT, but we just didn’t brand it as such. We wanted to speak to it in a way that was natural for the travel experience itself, and so we talk about these things as stamps, and they’re represented as tokens,” Marlowe said in an interview.
“As an identifier and representation of history the stamps could create interesting partnership angles over time. We weren’t trying to sell these or sort of generate any like short term revenue. The angle is to make a travel experience with Amex feel really rich, really different, and kind of set it apart,” he said.
The Amex travel app also includes a range of tools for travels and Centurion Lounge upgrades, the company said.
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