Deutsche Borse Backs Kraken at $13B

Ether.fi Bets $3B on Blockspace Futures | Tether Launches Self-Custodial Consumer Wallet

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
April 15, 2026

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Good Morning.

European exchange money is flowing into Kraken at a discount, Ethereum validators are selling blockspace before blocks are even built, and Tether just decided it wants to own the wallet too. Four stories this week, one through line: the infrastructure layer is getting crowded.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: Deutsche Borse Backs Kraken at $13B 💰️
Case Study: Ether.fi Bets $3B on Blockspace Futures 🔎
Governance & Features: Tether Launches Self-Custodial Consumer Wallet 💵

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Narratives: Infra Layer

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TOGETHER WITH

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WHAT MATTERS

Deutsche Borse Backs Kraken at $13B

State of play: Deutsche Borse Group has made a $200M strategic investment in Payward, Kraken's parent company, taking a 1.5% fully diluted stake and implying a valuation of $13.3B as the exchange advances toward a US IPO.

The deal follows a $200M investment from Citadel Securities and a prior partnership between Kraken and Deutsche Borse aimed at connecting traditional and crypto markets for institutional clients.
Deutsche Borse's stake comes at a discount to Kraken's prior $20B valuation, which was set in November when the firm confidentially filed for a US IPO.
The investment is expected to close in Q2 subject to regulatory approval, with both firms focused on building unified infrastructure for institutional clients.

Why it matters: Deutsche Borse's move transforms a commercial partnership into a capital commitment, signaling European exchange incumbents are shifting from collaboration to direct ownership of crypto infrastructure.

Our take: The valuation drop from $20B to $13.3B is the real story. Kraken is taking institutional money at a discount to accelerate its IPO path, and the haircut suggests the public markets window is narrower than the headline implies.

For builders and investors: The equity-for-infrastructure model is becoming a template. Builders in institutional clearing, custody, or settlement are now viable targets for legacy exchange operators looking to buy rather than build.

CASE STUDY

Ether.fi Bets $3B on Blockspace Futures

Ether.fi is committing $3B in ETH as validator liquidity to ETHGas, a marketplace for Ethereum blockspace futures, sourced from its 2.8M ETH under management over three years.

ETHGas allows validators to sell blockspace commitments in advance, capturing more MEV and generating higher, more predictable yields than standard staking.
Buyers including traders, apps, and institutions can purchase blockspace ahead of time for guaranteed execution, cost hedging, and predictable transaction timelines.
The commitment brings ETHGas's total liquidity to well above its $800M figure from December, deepening the supply side of the marketplace.
ETHGas has raised $17M in total funding from backers including Polychain Capital, Stake Capital, and Amber Group.
Ether.fi manages nearly $6.5B in ETH at current prices and also operates a crypto credit card product with 70,000 active cards and 300,000 accounts.

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INSIGHTS

Strategy's STRC Fuels Bitcoin Buying Engine

Source: The Block

State of play: Strategy's STRC preferred stock hit $1.1B in trading volume on April 13, a 47% jump from its previous high, cementing its role as the primary funding vehicle for the firm's bitcoin accumulation.

STRC is a perpetual preferred stock issued under Strategy's at-the-market program, used to raise cash that is then deployed into mostly weekly BTC treasury purchases.
Strategy used proceeds from over 10M STRC shares to fund a $1B bitcoin purchase last week, bringing total holdings to 780,897 BTC.
Analyst Lyn Alden noted STRC is now larger than all of Strategy's other preferred stocks combined, including STRK, STRF, and STRD.
STRC.live data suggests roughly 10.6M shares traded above key thresholds could correspond to approximately 7,130 BTC.
STRC sits within Strategy's broader "42/42" plan to raise $84B for bitcoin purchases through 2027 via preferred instruments and common stock issuance.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Tether Launches Self-Custodial Consumer Wallet

Tether has launched tether.wallet, a self-custodial app supporting USDT, USAT, tokenized gold, and bitcoin, marking a shift from backend infrastructure provider to direct consumer product.

Users can send funds via human-readable identifiers with fees payable in the asset being transferred, removing the need for separate gas tokens.
Private keys are fully user-controlled with transactions signed locally on-device, targeting Tether's existing network of 570M users globally.
The app runs on Tether's open-source Wallet Development Kit, supporting humans, machines, and AI systems across Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Lightning Network.
The launch follows a broader consumer push including platform integrations with Rumble and stablecoin payout investments through Whop.
Ardoino has argued AI agents will need native self-custodial wallets for machine-to-machine payments, a thesis tether.wallet is built to serve.

Other notable feature updates:

Saturn launched on mainnet.
Polymarket has launched pUSD.
Grove Finance has launched its app.
Axis has minted $10M USDx in private beta.
Chaos Labs is stepping down as Aave’s risk manager.
“Aave Will Win” governance passed with 75% support.

QUICK BITES

Strategy’s STRC hits $1.1B volume.
TeraWulf shares fall after upsized $900M equity raise.
Deutsche Borse invests $200M in Kraken parent Payward.
Y Combinator settles first all-stablecoin funding in USDC on Solana.
Societe Generale unit adds MiCA-compliant stablecoin to MetaMask.
Bitmine posts $3.8B quarterly net loss driven by unrealized ETH decline.
Major European SIX Group stock exchanges feeding data to Chainlink.
Ripple, Kyobo partner to enable tokenized bond settlement in South Korea.
Virginia to hold dormant crypto 'in-kind' for at least one year under new law.
Ether.fi commits $3B in ETH as 'validator liquidity' to ETHGas over three years.
Tether launches self-custodial wallet supporting USDT, BTC and tokenized gold.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Reid’s read on The Credit Layer for DeFi.
Stacy’s read on the List of Active Crypto VCs.
Totalis’s read on Totalis Takes $500K in Stablecoins From YC.

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