The Daily: Binance lands $2 billion investment, Sony's Soneium plans to bring LINE's mini-apps onchain and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Wednesday! This morning's U.S. CPI data gave the crypto market a glimmer of hope with inflation coming in slightly lower than expected — briefly lifting bitcoin. But, as has been the case with recent rallies, the gains were short-lived, quickly retracing as recession fears grow.

In today's newsletter, Binance secures a $2 billion landmark investment, Rumble discloses holding $17 million in bitcoin, Soneium plans to bring LINE's mini-apps onchain and more.

Meanwhile, the Venice airdrop comes to an end, with around $100 million worth of unclaimed VVV tokens burned.

Let's get started.

Binance secures $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's MGX in landmark crypto deal

Exchange giant Binance has secured a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based MGX — the single largest in crypto company history.

• It marks MGX's first investment into a crypto firm, with the tech investor also acquiring a minority stake in Binance, according to a Wednesday release.
• "This investment by MGX is a significant milestone for the crypto industry and for Binance," said Binance CEO Richard Teng, who previously served as CEO of the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Authority.
• The deal also represents Binance's first institutional financing and is the largest investment ever paid for using stablecoins.
• "As institutional adoption accelerates, the need for secure, compliant and scalable blockchain infrastructure and solutions has never been greater," MGX Managing Director and CEO Ahmed Yahia said.
• Following the partnership, MGX and Binance aim to bolster AI, blockchain and financial innovation.
• Binance maintained its global dominance in February, handling over $651.5 billion in spot trading volume — more than a third of the total centralized crypto exchange market.

Rumble discloses its corporate bitcoin holdings

Alternative video streaming platform Rumble has disclosed holdings of 188 BTC on its balance sheet as a hedge against inflation and part of its strategic expansion into crypto.

• The company acquired the bitcoin for approximately $17.1 million at an average price of $91,000 per coin before the recent selloff and may make additional purchases based on market conditions.
• Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski previously said the company would acquire up to $20 million worth of bitcoin, announcing its first undisclosed purchase on President Trump's inauguration day — which coincided with bitcoin's $109,000 all-time high.
• In December, stablecoin issuer Tether invested $775 million in Rumble, with $250 million earmarked for growth initiatives.
• Rumble's cloud services division hosts Trump's Truth Social and recently signed an agreement with El Salvador's government, where Tether is also setting up a headquarters.
• Meanwhile, Metaplanet announced it had acquired another 162 BTC ($13.5 million) for its treasury, seeing its stock jump 8%.

Sony's Soneium plans to bring LINE's mini-apps onchain

Sony's Soneium blockchain is teaming up with the Asian messaging giant LINE to bring its mini-apps onchain, starting with four games in the coming months.

• The collaboration aims to enhance user experience while providing LINE mini-app developers with community building, marketing and IP support.
• LINE, which has a strong presence in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, has been increasingly active in venturing into the web3 space.
• Sony Block Solutions Labs rolled out Soneium's Ethereum Layer 2 mainnet in January, and LINE launched a decentralized app portal in the same month.

Cboe BZX files to list Franklin Templeton's proposed Solana ETF

Cboe BZX Exchange filed a 19b-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday to list and trade shares of the Franklin Solana ETF.

• At over $1.5 trillion in assets under management, Franklin Templeton is the largest asset manager to file for a spot Solana ETF so far.
• A 19b-4 filing is the second part of a two-step process for proposing a crypto ETF to the SEC. Once acknowledged by the SEC, the filing will be published in the Federal Register, initiating the agency's approval process.
• The latest filing comes one day after Franklin Templeton filed an S-1 form to launch a spot XRP ETF in the first step of that process.
• Amid a slew of recent altcoin ETF filings, Bloomberg ETF analysts estimate a 70% approval chance for Solana ETFs, trailing Litecoin (90%) and Dogecoin (75%) but ahead of XRP (65%).
• However, the SEC has recently delayed decisions on several filings as the agency awaits Paul Atkins' confirmation as its new chair.

HYPE falls amid Hyperliquid whale liquidation

HYPE dropped around 8.5% on Wednesday after a whale liquidation event left Hyperliquid's HLP vault with a $4 million loss.

• Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain noted that the Hyperliquid whale had deposited 15.23 million USDC to build a leveraged long position in ether worth over $300 million.
• The trader was subsequently liquidated but managed to withdraw 17.09 million USDC, making a profit of $1.86 million.
• Some community members had speculated about a potential manipulation. However, Hyperliquid later confirmed that there had been no exploit of the protocol, but its liquidation engine simply could not handle the size of the position.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. PPI and jobless claims figures are due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
• Render and Axie Infinity are set for token unlocks.

Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.