CZ Denies Trump & Binance Deal

Unichain's $100M+ Incentives | Strobe Ventures $100M Fund II

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
March 14, 2025

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Good Morning.

Trump x Binance was the craziest news reporting in 2025 and we’re only in March. That said, CZ denied the reporting, particularly around the discussion around pardon. Meanwhile, the market is still relatively quiet.

In Today's Email:

What Matters: Trump Family, Binance US Deal? 👀
Founders Highlight: Satvik of Offline Protocol 👨
Deal Flow: Strobe Ventures $100M Fund II 💰️

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at marco@launchy.app.

Narratives: Sonic farming, HYPE farming, etc.

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TOGETHER WITH

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WHAT MATTERS

WSJ Reports Trump Family in Talks for Binance US Stake; CZ Denies Claims

4. Sorry to disappoint. The WSJ article got the facts wrong.
More than 20 people have told me they were asked by the WSJ (and another media), "Can you confirm that CZ made some deal for a pardon?"
They probably asked hundreds of people to have 20 people reach out to me. In… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance)
2:38 PM • Mar 13, 2025

State of play: The Wall Street Journal reported that representatives of former President Donald Trump's family engaged in discussions to acquire a financial stake in Binance.US, as part of an effort to bring the exchange back to the United States.

The report also suggested that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was seeking a presidential pardon following his guilty plea for violating US AML laws.
Additionally, Binance allegedly reached out to Trump allies in 2023 to explore a business partnership.
The specific nature of the Trump family's stake remains unclear, as does whether any deal would be tied to a potential pardon.

CZ publicly refuted the report, stating that he had never engaged in discussions regarding a Binance.US deal.

He criticized the WSJ article, alleging that it was politically motivated and part of lingering anti-crypto sentiment from the previous administration.
CZ also acknowledged that while any felon would welcome a pardon, he had not pursued one.
Meanwhile, Binance has received a $2B investment from MGX, a technology investment firm in Abu Dhabi, marking MGX's first venture into crypto and blockchain. As part of the deal, MGX has acquired a minority stake in Binance.

What’s next: Regulators and lawmakers may scrutinize the reported talks, particularly regarding potential conflicts of interest and Trump's recent pro-crypto moves.

For builders and investors: Crypto is more intertwined with global politics, and that will only accelerate.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Satvik Sethi of Offline Protocol

Intro: Satvik Sethi is the founder of Offline Protocol, a censorship-resistant stack comprising of offline networking, decentralized cryptography, and local serverless circumvention tools.

Previous background: Satvik is a Web3 entrepreneur and product leader with experience in blockchain, fintech, and social tech. He led Web3/NFT initiatives at Mastercard, advised Morph, and founded Anokha, a social platform that exited in 2024.

Previously, he built Runaway App, a mental health platform.

The big idea: Satvik through Offline Protocol wants to enable novel use cases around decentralized communication, peer-to-peer payments, and information dissemination, all thriving in the absence of constant connectivity.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

HYPE Drops 9% After $4M HLP Vault Loss

The Block

State of play: $HYPE fell 9% after a whale liquidation event caused a $4M loss in Hyperliquid’s HLP vault, a community-owned market-making fund.

The incident saw a trader deposit $15.23M USDC, build a 160,234 ETH position, get liquidated, and still withdraw $17.09M USDC, making a $1.86M profit.
Some speculated manipulation, but Hyperliquid confirmed no exploit or hack occurred—its liquidation engine struggled to process the trade size.
In response, the platform lowered leverage limits for BTC and ETH to prevent similar risks. Despite the loss, HLP’s all-time PNL remains at ~$60M.

DEAL FLOWS

Strobe Ventures Spins Out from BlockTower, Plans $100M Fund II

Deal flows remained steady this week - we saw $140M in deals 💼

BlockTower Capital’s venture unit has spun out as an independent firm, launching as Strobe Ventures with $235M AUM and plans to raise $100M for Fund II.

The move follows BlockTower’s 2024 merger with Arca, but the venture team opted to stay independent.
Led by Thomas Klocanas, along with Steven Venino and Winnie Lau, Strobe Ventures will continue its early-stage crypto investment strategy, focusing on pre-seed to Series A startups with a high-conviction, low-velocity approach.
Strobe inherited BlockTower’s $150M first fund and has already made three investments post-spinout, including Clanker, an AI-driven token creation bot on Base.
Strobe aims to deploy 10 more investments in 2025 with an average $3M check per startup, prioritizing real-world use cases leveraging crypto and blockchain infrastructure.

Deal flows in the past week:

Sogni AI, $2M Pre-Seed Round
Arda Labs, $3M Pre-Seed Round
Rakurai, $3M Seed Round
Mesh, $82M Series B
Bubblemaps, $0.8M Public Token Sale
Obol Labs, $3M Public Token Sale
Axelar Network, $30M Private Token Sale
MYX Finance, $5M Strategic Round
Lagom Chain, $0.2M Unknown Round
Vest Exchange, $5M Unknown Round
Captain Tsubasa: Rivals, $5M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

Star Atlas aims to launch this year.
BlackRock's BUIDL crossed the $1B mark.
CZ denies asking the US President for a pardon.
HYPE drops 8.5% amid $4 million HLP vault loss.
US court allows 3AC to expand FTX claim to $1.5B.
Binance secures $2B investment from Abu Dhabi’s MGX.
BlockTower's venture unit spins out as Strobe Ventures.
Amber Grup’s subsidiary goes public on Nasdaq via SPAC.
Senate Banking Committee votes to advance stablecoin bill.
South Korea prepares to unlock institutional crypto investment.
Aave targets institutions with RWA in the new ‘Horizon’ initiative.
MoonPay acquires stablecoin infrastructure firm Iron for $100M.
ETH developers to launch ‘Hoodi’ testnet ahead of Pectra upgrade.
Trezor discloses a potential vulnerability in older Safe 3 crypto wallets.
JPMorgan says public Bitcoin miners keep gaining network hashrate share.
SEC vs. Ripple nears conclusion as XRP-ETH comparison takes center stage.

NOTEWORTHY READS

Matti’s read on welcome to disillusionment.
Kyle Downey’s read on crypto’s risk-free asset.
Tushar Jain’s read on SIMD-228 Solana upgrade.

We need to flush out all the tourists (people who still believe in the tech) so we can get back to gambling degenerately
— Gwart (@GwartyGwart)
9:55 PM • Mar 10, 2025

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.